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Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)5
Registration No. 333-192891

 

The information in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus is not complete and may be changed. A registration statement relating to these securities has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus are not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

 

Subject to Completion dated March 19, 2014

PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT

(to Prospectus dated January 9, 2014)

 

Marchex, Inc.

5,714,000 Shares

Class B Common Stock

Marchex, Inc. is offering 2,857,000 shares of its Class B common stock and the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus are offering 2,857,000 shares of Class B common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Our Class B common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “MCHX.” On March 18, 2014, the closing sale price of our Class B common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market was $12.01 per share.

Investing in our Class B common stock involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page S-17 of this prospectus supplement and page 5 of the accompanying prospectus.

PRICE $              A SHARE

 

Price to Public

Underwriting Discounts and Commissions

Proceeds to Company

Proceeds to Selling Stockholders

Per Share

$

$

$

$

Total

$

$

$

$

We have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 514,100 shares of our Class B common stock and the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 343,000 shares of our Class B common stock, each pursuant to the underwriters’ option. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares to purchasers on March             , 2014.

 

Deutsche Bank Securities		RBC Capital Markets		Piper Jaffray

BMO Capital Markets		Stephens Inc.

March             , 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

		Page
About This Prospectus Supplement			S-ii
Summary			S-1
Summary Consolidated Financial Data			S-12
The Offering			S-15
Risk Factors			S-17
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Industry Data			S-44
Use of Proceeds			S-45
Price Range of Our Class B Common Stock			S-46
Dividend Policy			S-47
Principal Holders of our Voting Securities			S-48
Selling Stockholders			S-51
Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences for Non-U.S. Holders			S-53
Underwriting			S-57
Legal Matters			S-62
Experts			S-62
Where You Can Find More Information			S-62
Information Incorporated by Reference			S-63
Prospectus
About this Prospectus			1
Prospectus Summary			3
Risk Factors			5
Use of Proceeds			27
Selling Stockholders			27
Plan of Distribution			28
Legal Matters			29
Where You Can Find More Information			29
Information Incorporated by Reference			30

We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide any information other than that contained or incorporated by reference in the accompanying base prospectus, this prospectus supplement or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the selling stockholders are offering to sell and seeking offers to buy, shares of our Class B common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information in the accompanying base prospectus, this prospectus supplement, including any information incorporated by reference, or in any free-writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you, is accurate only as of its date, regardless of its time of delivery or of any sale of shares of our Class B common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT

This document is in two parts. The first part is this prospectus supplement, which describes the terms of this offering of our Class B common stock and supplements information contained in the accompanying base prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference into the accompanying base prospectus. The second part consists of the accompanying base prospectus, dated January 9, 2014, which gives more general information about us and the shares of Class B common stock we may offer from time to time under our shelf registration statement. If there is a conflict between the information contained in this prospectus supplement, on the one hand, and the information contained in the accompanying base prospectus or any document incorporated by reference therein, on the other hand, then the information in this prospectus supplement will control.

This prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and the information incorporated herein and therein by reference include trademarks, service marks and trade names owned by us or other companies. All trademarks, service marks and trade names included or incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus are the property of their respective owners.

Unless the context otherwise indicates or requires, the terms “Marchex,” “MCHX,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” as used in this prospectus supplement refer to Marchex, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

 

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RISK FACTORS

An investment in our Class B common stock involves a significant degree of risk, including the risks described in this prospectus supplement. You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the information under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, which is incorporated herein by reference, and under similar headings in our subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K, as applicable, as well as the other risks and uncertainties described or incorporated by reference in the base prospectus and the other information in this prospectus supplement before making an investment in our Class B common stock. If any of the risks described below actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only risks facing our company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or those we currently view to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In such a case, the trading price of our Class B common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment. See the sections entitled “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Information Incorporated by Reference” in this prospectus supplement. This prospectus supplement also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Industry Data.” Our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including the risks facing our company described below and elsewhere in this prospectus supplement.

Risks Relating to Our Company

We have largely incurred net losses since our inception, and we may incur net losses in the foreseeable future.

We had an accumulated deficit of $171.1 million as of December 31, 2013. Our net expenses may increase based on the initiatives we undertake which for instance, may include increasing our sales and marketing activities, hiring additional personnel, incurring additional costs as a result of being a public company, acquiring additional businesses and making additional equity grants to our employees.

We are dependent on certain distribution partners, for distribution of our services, and we derive a significant portion of our total revenue through these distribution partners. A loss of distribution partners or a decrease in revenue from certain distribution partners could adversely affect our business.

A relatively small number of distribution partners currently deliver a significant percentage of calls and traffic to our advertisers. Our largest distribution partner was paid less than 15% of total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013. Our existing agreements with many of our other larger distribution partners permit either company to terminate without penalty on short notice and are primarily structured on a variable-payment basis, under which we make payments based on a specified percentage of revenue or based on the number of paid phone calls or click-throughs. We intend to continue devoting resources in support of our larger distribution partners, but there are no guarantees that these relationships will remain in place over the short-or long-term. In addition, we cannot be assured that any of these distribution partners will continue to generate current levels of revenue for us or that we will be able to maintain the applicable variable payment terms at their current levels. A loss of any of these distribution partners or a decrease in revenue due to lower calls and traffic or less favorable variable payment terms from any one of these distribution relationships could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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Companies distributing advertising through mobile or online Internet have experienced, and will likely continue to experience, consolidation. This consolidation has reduced the number of partners that control the mobile and online advertising outlets with the most user calls and traffic. According to the comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace for December 2013, Yahoo! and Microsoft accounted for 11% and 18%, respectively, of the core search market in the United States and Google accounted for 67%. As a result, the larger distribution partners have greater control over determining the market terms of distribution, including placement of call and click-based advertisements and cost of placement. In addition, many participants in the performance-based advertising and search marketing industries control significant portions of mobile and online traffic that they deliver to advertisers. We do not believe, for example, that Yahoo! and Google are as reliant as we are on a third party distribution network to deliver their services. This gives these companies a significant advantage over us in delivering their services, and with a lesser degree of risk.

We rely on certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies, including YP, hibu, Inc., The Cobalt Group, Super Media, Inc., Yodle and Yellow Media, Inc. for the purchase of various advertising and marketing services, as well as to provide us with a large number of advertisers. A loss of certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies or a decrease in revenue from these reseller partners could adversely affect our business. Such advertisers are subject to varying terms and conditions which may result in claims or credit risks to us.

We benefit from the established relationships and national sales teams that certain of our reseller partners, who are leading reseller partners of advertisers and advertising agencies, have in place throughout the U.S. and international markets. These advertiser reseller partners and agencies refer or bring advertisers to us for the purchase of various advertising products and services. We derive a sizeable portion of our total revenue through these advertiser reseller partners and agencies. Additionally, these advertiser reseller partners and agencies may decide to operate the advertising services we perform internally with their own teams and technology. A loss of certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies or a decrease in revenue from these clients could adversely affect our business. Through our contract with Yellowpages.com LLC d/b/a AT&T Interactive which is a subsidiary of AT&T (collectively, “AT&T”), our arrangement with AT&T relates to a business unit that is included in YP Holdings, LLC (“YP”) that AT&T sold a majority stake in to a private equity third party in April 2012. YP is our largest reseller partner and was responsible for 25% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013 of which the majority is derived from our local leads platform. We cannot predict whether our business with YP in the future will continue at or near current levels and any decrease in such levels could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

These advertisers may in certain cases be subject to negotiated terms and conditions separate from those applied to online clients accepted and processed through our automated advertiser management platform. In some cases, the applicable contract terms may be the result of legacy or industry association documentation or simply customized advertising solutions for large reseller partners and agencies. In any case, as a consequence of such varying terms and conditions, we may be subject to claims or credit risks that we may otherwise mitigate more efficiently across our automated advertiser management platform.

These claims and risks may vary depending on the nature of the aggregated client base. Among other claims, we may be subject to disputes based on third party tracking information or analysis. We may also be subject to differing credit profiles and risks based on the agency relationship associated with these advertisers. For such advertisers, payment may be made on an invoice basis, unlike our retail platform which in many instances is paid in advance of the service. In some limited circumstances we may also have accepted individual advertiser payment liability in place of liability of the advertising agency or media advisor.

 

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We received approximately 53% and 61% of our revenue from our five largest customers for the year ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively, and the loss of one or more of these customers could adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.

Our five largest customers accounted for approximately 53% and 61% of our total revenues for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively. YP, ADT, and Allstate are our largest customers and were responsible for 25%, 13% and 12% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013, respectively, and 41%, 14% and 13% of accounts receivable at December 31, 2013, respectively. Most of these customers are not subject to long term contracts with us and are generally able to reduce advertising spending at any time and for any reason. A significant reduction in advertising spending by our largest customers, or the loss of one or more of these customers, if not replaced by new customers or an increase in business from existing customers, would adversely affect revenues. This could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our large customers have substantial negotiating leverage, which may require that we agree to terms and conditions that may have an adverse effect on our business.

Our large customers have substantial purchasing power and leverage in negotiating contractual arrangements with us. These customers may seek for us to develop additional features, may require penalties for failure to deliver such features, may seek discounted product or service pricing and may seek more favorable contractual terms. As we sell more products and services to this class of customer, we may be required to agree to such terms and conditions. Such large customers also have substantial leverage in negotiating resolution of any disagreements or disputes that may arise. Any of the foregoing factors could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If some of our customers experience financial distress or suffer disruptions in their business, their weakened financial position could negatively affect our own financial position and results.

We have a diverse customer base and, at any given time, one or more customers may experience financial distress, file for bankruptcy protection, go out of business, or suffer disruptions in their business. If a customer with whom we do a substantial amount of business experiences financial difficulty or suffers disruptions in their business, it could delay or jeopardize the collection of accounts receivable, result in significant reductions in services provided by us and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and liquidity.

We may incur liabilities for the activities of our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and other users of our services, which could adversely affect our business.

Many of our advertisement generation and distribution processes are automated. In some cases, advertisers or reseller partners use our online tools and account management systems to create and submit advertiser listings and in other cases we create and submit advertising listings on behalf of our advertisers or reseller partners. These advertiser listings are submitted in a bulk data feed or through the distribution partners’ user interface. Although we monitor our distribution partners on an ongoing basis primarily for traffic quality, these partners control the distribution of the advertiser listings provided in the data feed or user interface submissions.

We have a large number of distribution partners who display our advertiser listings on their networks. Our advertiser listings are delivered to our distribution partners in an automated fashion through an XML data feed or data dump or through the distribution partners’ user interface. Our distribution partners are contractually required to use the listings created by our

 

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advertiser customers in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and in conformity with the publication restrictions in our agreements, which are intended to promote the quality and validity of the traffic provided to our advertisers. Nonetheless, we do not operationally control or manage these distribution partners and any breach of these agreements on the part of any distribution partner or its affiliates could result in liability for our business. These agreements include indemnification obligations on the part of our distribution partners, but there is no guarantee that we would be able to collect against offending distribution partners or their affiliates in the event of a claim under these indemnification provisions. Alternatively, we may incur substantial costs as part of our indemnification obligations to distribution partners for liability they may incur as a result of displaying content we have provided them.

We do not conduct a manual editorial review of a substantial number of the advertiser listings directly submitted by advertisers or reseller partners online, nor do we manually review the display of the vast majority of the advertiser listings by our distribution partners submitted to us by XML data feeds or data dumps or the distribution partners’ user interface. Likewise, in cases where we provide editorial or value-added services for our large reseller partners or agencies, such as ad creation and optimization for local advertisers or landing pages and micro-sites for pay-for-call customers, we rely on the content and information provided to us by these agents on behalf of their individual advertisers. We do not investigate the individual business activities of these advertisers other than the information provided to us or in some cases review of advertiser web sites. We may not successfully avoid liability for unlawful activities carried out by our advertisers or reseller partners and other users of our services or unpermitted uses of our advertiser listings by distribution partners and their affiliates.

Our potential liability for unlawful activities of our advertisers and other users of our services or unpermitted uses of our advertiser listings and advertising services and platform by distribution partners and reseller partners and agencies could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us, among other things, to spend substantial resources, to discontinue certain service offerings or to terminate certain distribution partner relationships. For example, as a result of the actions of advertisers in our network, we may be subject to private or governmental actions relating to a wide variety of issues, such as privacy, gambling, promotions, and intellectual property ownership and infringement. Under agreements with certain of our larger distribution partners, we may be required to indemnify these distribution partners against liabilities or losses resulting from the content of our advertiser listings, or resulting from third party intellectual property infringement claims. Although our advertisers agree to indemnify us with respect to claims arising from these listings, we may not be able to recover all or any of the liabilities or losses incurred by us as a result of the activities of our advertisers.

Our insurance policies may not provide coverage for liability arising out of activities of users of our services. In addition, our reliance on some content and information provided to us by our large advertiser reseller partners and agencies may expose us to liability not covered by our insurance policies. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain or maintain adequate insurance coverage to reduce or limit the liabilities associated with our businesses. Any costs incurred as a result of such liability or asserted liability could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Our insurance policies may not provide coverage for liability arising out of activities of users of our services. In addition, our reliance on some content and information provided to us by our large advertiser reseller partners and agencies may expose us to liability not covered by our insurance policies. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain or maintain adequate insurance coverage to reduce or limit the liabilities associated with our businesses. Any costs incurred as a result of such liability or asserted liability could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

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If we do not maintain and grow a critical mass of advertisers and distribution partners, the value of our services could be adversely affected.

Our success depends, in large part, on the maintenance and growth of a critical mass of advertisers and distribution partners and a continued interest in our pay-for-call, performance-based advertising, call analytics and search marketing services. Advertisers will generally seek the most competitive return on investment from advertising and marketing services. Distribution partners will also seek the most favorable payment terms available in the market. Advertisers and distribution partners may change providers or the volume of business with a provider, unless the product and terms are competitive. In this environment, we must compete to acquire and maintain our network of advertisers and distribution partners. If our business is unable to maintain and grow our base of advertisers, our current distribution partners may be discouraged from continuing to work with us, and this may create obstacles for us to enter into agreements with new distribution partners. Our business also in part depends on certain of our large reseller partners and agencies to grow their base of advertisers as these advertisers become increasingly important to our business and our ability to attract additional distribution partners and opportunities. Similarly, if our distribution network does not grow and does not continue to improve over time, current and prospective advertisers and reseller partners and agencies may reduce or terminate this portion of their business with us. Any decline in the number of advertisers and distribution partners could adversely affect the value of our services.

The mobile advertising market may develop more slowly than expected, which could harm our business.

If the market for mobile marketing and advertising develops more slowly than we expect, our business could suffer. Our future success is highly dependent on the commitment of advertisers and marketers to mobile communications as an advertising and marketing medium, the willingness of our potential advertisers to outsource their mobile advertising and marketing needs, and our ability to sell our mobile advertising services to reseller partners and agencies. The mobile advertising and marketing market is relatively new and rapidly evolving. Businesses, including current and potential advertisers, may find mobile advertising or marketing to be less effective than traditional advertising media or marketing methods or other technologies for promoting their products and services. As a result, the future demand and market acceptance for mobile marketing and advertising is uncertain. Many of our current or potential advertisers have little or no experience using mobile communications for advertising or marketing purposes and have allocated only a limited portion of their advertising or marketing budgets to mobile communications advertising or marketing, and there is no certainty that they will allocate more funds in the future, if any. Funds to these types of campaigns may fluctuate greatly as different agencies and advertisers test and refine their overall marketing strategies to include mobile advertising and analytics tools. The adoption rate and budget commitments may vary from period to period as agencies and advertisers determine the appropriate mix of media and lead sources in short term and longer term campaigns.

We are dependent upon the quality of mobile, online, offline and other traffic sources in our network to provide value to our advertisers and the advertisers of our reseller partners, and any failure in our quality control could have a material adverse effect on the value of our services to our advertisers and adversely affect our revenues.

We utilize certain monitoring processes with respect to the quality of the mobile, online, offline and other traffic sources that we deliver to our advertisers. Among the factors we seek to monitor are sources and causes of low quality phone calls such as unwanted telemarketer calls and clicks such as non-human processes, including robots, spiders or other software, the

 

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mechanical automation of clicking, and other types of invalid clicks, click fraud, or click spam, the purpose of which is something other than to view the underlying content. Additionally, we also seek to identify other indicators which may suggest that a user may not be targeted by or desirable to our advertisers. Even with such monitoring in place, there is a risk that a certain amount of low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic or traffic that is deemed to be less valuable by our advertisers will be delivered to such advertisers, which may be detrimental to those relationships. We have regularly refunded fees that our advertisers had paid to us which were attributed to low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic. If we are unable to stop or reduce low quality Internet traffic and low quality phone calls, these refunds may increase. Low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic may further prevent us from growing our base of advertisers and cause us to lose relationships with existing advertisers, or become the target of litigation, both of which would adversely affect our revenues.

We depend on being able to secure enough phone numbers to support our advertisers and other users of our services and any obstacles that we face which prevent us from meeting this demand could adversely affect our business.

We utilize phone numbers as part of a number of information and analytic services to advertisers, such as our pay-for-call, call tracking and call analytics services. Our services that utilize phone numbers are designed to enable advertisers and other users of our services to utilize mobile, online and offline advertising and to help measure the effectiveness of mobile, online and offline advertising campaigns. We secure a majority of our phone numbers through telecommunication carriers that we have contracted with and a smaller number through the 800 Service Management System, and such telecommunication carriers provide the underlying telephone service. Our telecommunications carriers and telephone number acquisition process are subject to the rules and guidelines established by the Federal Communications Commission. Furthermore, to the extent we offer call recording and pay-for-call services, we may be directly subject to certain telecommunications-related regulations. The Federal Communications Commission and our telecommunication carriers may change the rules and guidelines for securing phone numbers or change the requirements for retaining the phone numbers we have already secured. As a result, we may not be able to secure or retain sufficient phone numbers needed for our services. We may also be limited in the number of available telecommunications carriers or vendors to provide such phone numbers to us in the event of any industry consolidations.

Our acquisition of certain automated voice and mobile advertising-based technologies is heavily reliant on vendors.

Certain voice and mobile advertising-based products that we acquired as part of our acquisition of Jingle are heavily reliant on vendors. The free directory product that we provide relies on technology provided by third party vendors that include voice recognition software and business, government and residence data listings. We cannot guarantee that the technology, data and services provided by our third party vendors will be of sufficient quality to meet the demands of our customers and partners. Further, we cannot guarantee that the technologies, data and services will be available to us in the future on acceptable terms, if at all. Any perception by our customers or partners that our voice and mobile advertising-based products are incomplete or not of sufficient quality could lead to a loss in confidence by our customers or partners, which in turn could lead to a decline in revenues. If we are unable to continue maintaining, advancing and improving our voice and mobile advertising-based products, our operating results may be adversely affected.

 

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We may be subject to intellectual property claims, which could adversely affect our financial condition and ability to use certain critical technologies, divert our resources and management attention from our business operations and create uncertainty about ownership of technology essential to our business.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to operate without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others. There can be no guarantee that any of our intellectual property will not be challenged by third parties. We may be subject to patent infringement claims or other intellectual property infringement claims, including claims of trademark infringement in connection with our acquisition of previously-owned Internet domain names and claims of copyright infringement with respect to certain of our proprietary web sites that would be costly to defend and could limit our ability to use certain critical technologies.

The expansion of our call advertising business increases the potential intellectual property infringement claims we may be subject to, particularly in light of the large number of patents which have been issued (or are pending) in the telecommunications field over the last several decades, both in the U.S. and internationally. Jingle, which we acquired in 2011, was subject to patent infringement claims which were unsuccessful at trial. We resolved this matter and obtained a license to the patents at issue.

We believe that a consolidation of patent portfolios by major technology companies and independent asset holding companies will increase the chances of aggressive assertions of patent and other intellectual property claims. Within the technology telecommunications and online sectors, among other related sectors, we have witnessed various claim holders and alleged rights holders pursue business strategies devoted to extracting settlements or license fees for a wide range of basic and commonly accepted methods and practices. We may be subject to those intellectual property claims in the ordinary course of our business. Also, our partners and customers may also find that they are subject to similar claims, in which case we may be included in any related process or dispute settlement.

Any patent or other intellectual property litigation could negatively impact our business by diverting resources and management attention from other aspects of the business and adding uncertainty as to the ownership of technology, services and property that we view as proprietary and essential to our business. In addition, a successful claim of patent infringement against us and our failure or inability to license the infringed or similar technology on reasonable terms, or at all, could prevent us from using critical technologies which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may need additional funding to meet our obligations and to pursue our business strategy. Additional funding may not be available to us and our financial condition could therefore be adversely affected.

We may require additional funding to meet our ongoing obligations and to pursue our business strategy, which may include the selective acquisition of businesses and technologies. In addition, we have incurred and we may incur certain obligations in the future. There can be no assurance that if we were to need additional funds to meet these obligations that additional financing arrangements would be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Furthermore, if adequate additional funds are not available, we will be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate material parts of the implementation of our business strategy, including potential additional acquisitions or internally-developed businesses.

 

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Our acquisitions could divert management’s attention, cause ownership dilution to our stockholders, cause our earnings to decrease and be difficult to integrate.

Our business strategy includes identifying, structuring, completing and integrating acquisitions. Acquisitions in the technology and Internet sectors involve a high degree of risk. We may also be unable to find a sufficient number of attractive opportunities to meet our objectives which include revenue growth, profitability and competitive market share. Our acquired companies may have histories of net losses and may expect net losses for the foreseeable future. Acquisitions are accompanied by a number of risks that could harm our business, operating results and financial condition:

 

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We could experience a substantial strain on our resources, including time and money, and we may not be successful;

 

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Our management’s attention could be diverted from our ongoing business concerns;

 

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While integrating new companies, we may lose key executives or other employees of these companies;

 

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We may issue shares of our Class B common stock as consideration for acquisitions which may result in ownership dilution to our stockholders;

 

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We could fail to successfully integrate our financial and management controls, technology, reporting systems and procedures, or adequately expand, train and manage our workforce;

 

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We could experience customer dissatisfaction or performance problems with an acquired company or technology;

 

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We could become subject to unknown or underestimated liabilities of an acquired entity or incur unexpected expenses or losses from such acquisitions;

 

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We could incur possible impairment charges related to goodwill or other intangible assets or other unanticipated events or circumstances, any of which could harm our business; and

 

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We may be exposed to investigations and/or audits by federal, state or other taxing authorities.

Consequently, we might not be successful in integrating any acquired businesses, products or technologies, and might not achieve anticipated revenue and cost benefits.

Our expanding international operations subject us to additional risks and uncertainties and we may not be successful with our strategy to continue to expand such operations.

One potential area of growth for us is in international markets. We have initiated operations, through our subsidiaries, in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Our international expansion and the integration of international operations present unique challenges and risks. Compliance with complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations increases our cost of doing business in international jurisdictions and could interfere with our ability to offer our products and services to one or more countries or expose us or our employees to fines and penalties. Our continued international expansion also subjects us to increased foreign currency exchange rate risks and will require additional management attention and resources. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in our international expansion. There are risks inherent in conducting business in international markets, including the need to localize our products and services to foreign customers’ preferences and customs, difficulties in managing operations due to language barriers, distance, staffing and cultural

 

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differences, application of foreign laws and regulations to us, tariffs and other trade barriers, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, establishing management systems and infrastructures, reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries, changes in foreign political and economic conditions, and potentially adverse tax consequences. Our failure to address these risks adequately could materially and adversely affect our business, revenue, results of operations and financial condition.

The loss of our senior management, including our executive officer founders, could harm our current and future operations and prospects.

We are heavily dependent upon the continued services of Russell C. Horowitz, our chairman and chief executive officer, and the other members of our senior management team. Each member of our senior management team is an at-will employee and may voluntarily terminate his employment with us at any time with minimal notice. Following any termination of employment, each of these employees would only be subject to a twelve-month non-competition and non-solicitation obligation with respect to our customers and employees under our standard confidentiality agreement. Further, as of December 31, 2013, Russell C. Horowitz, Ethan A. Caldwell and Peter Christothoulou, our executive officer founders, together controlled 87% of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Their collective voting control is not tied to their continued employment with Marchex. The loss of the services of any member of our senior management, including our executive officer founders, for any reason, or any conflict among our executive officer founders, could harm our current and future operations and prospects.

We may have difficulty retaining current personnel as well as attracting and retaining additional qualified, experienced, highly skilled personnel, which could adversely affect the implementation of our business plan.

Our performance is largely dependent upon the talents and efforts of highly skilled individuals. In order to fully implement our business plan, we will need to retain our current qualified personnel, as well as attract and retain additional qualified personnel. Thus, our success will in significant part depend upon our retention of current personnel as well as the efforts of personnel not yet identified and upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering, sales and marketing personnel. We are also dependent on managerial and technical personnel to the extent they may have knowledge or information about our businesses and technical systems that may not be known by our other personnel. There can be no assurance that we will be able to attract and retain necessary personnel. The failure to hire and retain such personnel could adversely affect the implementation of our business plan.

If we are unable to obtain and maintain adequate insurance, our financial condition could be adversely affected in the event of uninsured or inadequately insured loss or damage. Our ability to effectively recruit and retain qualified officers and directors may also be adversely affected if we experience difficulty in maintaining adequate directors’ and officers’ liability insurance.

We may not be able to obtain and maintain insurance policies on terms affordable to us that would adequately insure our business and property against damage, loss or claims by third parties. To the extent our business or property suffers any damages, losses or claims by third parties that are not covered or adequately covered by insurance, our financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

We currently have directors’ and officers’ liability insurance. If we are unable to maintain sufficient insurance as a public company to cover liability claims made against our officers and directors, we may not be able to retain or recruit qualified officers and directors to manage our company, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

 

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It may be difficult for us to retain or attract qualified officers and directors, which could adversely affect our business and our ability to maintain the listing of our Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

We may be unable to attract and retain qualified officers, directors and members of board committees required to provide for our effective management as a result of changes in the rules and regulations which govern publicly-held companies, including, but not limited to, certifications from executive officers and requirements for financial experts on boards of directors. The perceived increased personal risk associated with these changes may deter qualified individuals from accepting these roles. Further, applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the NASDAQ Stock Market heighten the requirements for board or committee membership, particularly with respect to an individual’s independence from the corporation and level of experience in finance and accounting matters. We may have difficulty attracting and retaining directors with the requisite qualifications. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified officers and directors, our business and our ability to maintain the listing of our shares of Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market could be adversely affected.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud, which could harm our brand and operating results.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable and accurate financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. We have devoted significant resources and time to comply with the internal control over financial reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In addition, Section 404 under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires that we assess and our auditors attest to the effectiveness of our controls over financial reporting. Our current and future compliance with the annual internal control report requirement will depend on the effectiveness of our financial reporting and data systems and controls across our operating subsidiaries. We expect these systems and controls to become increasingly complex to the extent that we integrate acquisitions and our business grows. To effectively manage this growth, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we design, implement and maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation or operation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations. Inadequate internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock and our access to capital.

Impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets would result in a decrease in earnings.

Current accounting rules require that goodwill and other intangible assets with indefinite useful lives be tested for impairment at least annually. These rules also require that intangible assets with definite useful lives be amortized over their respective estimated useful lives to their estimated residual values, and reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Events and circumstances considered in determining whether the carrying value of amortizable intangible assets and goodwill may not be recoverable include, but are not limited to, significant changes in performance relative to expected operating results, significant changes in the use of the assets, significant negative industry or economic trends, or a significant decline in our stock price and/or market capitalization for a sustained period of time. To the extent such evaluation indicates that the useful lives of intangible assets are different than originally estimated, the

 

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amortization period is reduced or extended and, accordingly, the quarterly amortization expense is increased or decreased. To the extent such evaluation indicates that the useful lives of intangible assets are different than originally estimated, the amortization period is reduced or extended and, accordingly, amortization expense is increased or decreased.

We recorded a substantial non-cash impairment charge for goodwill and intangible assets during the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of the impact of the adverse economic environment including the deterioration in the equity and credit markets. During the fourth quarter of 2012, we recorded a non-cash impairment charge for goodwill of $15.8 million within the Archeo reporting unit as a result of lower projected revenue growth rates and profitability levels compared to historical results and other market-based factors. We may be required to record a future charge to earnings in our financial statements during the period in which any additional impairment of our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets is determined. Any impairment charges or changes to the estimated amortization periods could have a material adverse effect on our financial results.

We may be required to increase or decrease the valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets.

Factors in our ability to realize a tax benefit from our deferred tax assets include tax attributes and operating results of acquired businesses, the nature, extent and periods that temporary differences are expected to reverse and our expectations about future operating results. We regularly review our deferred tax assets to assess whether or not it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will be realized, and if necessary, increase or decrease the valuation allowance for portions of such assets to reduce the carrying value. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, we recognized a partial valuation allowance of $16.4 million on our federal deferred tax assets which reduced our net deferred assets to $28.5 million. At the end of the second quarter of 2013, our gross deferred tax assets increased by approximately $651,000 due primarily to the 2012 and 2013 research and development credit which was reinstated as part the 2012 American Taxpayer Relief Act signed into law in January 2013. This increase was offset by a corresponding increase in our valuation allowance. If we determine that our deferred tax assets will not result in a future tax benefit, an additional valuation allowance may be recorded with a corresponding charge to net income. Such charges may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. The likelihood of recording such a valuation allowance may be impacted by our acquisitions and increases during periods of economic downturn.

We may not be able to realize the intended and anticipated benefits from our acquisitions of Internet domain names in part due to our increasing business focus on call advertising products, which could affect the value of these acquisitions to our business and our ability to meet our financial obligations and targets.

We may not be able to realize the intended and anticipated benefits from our acquisitions of Internet domain names in part due to our increasing focus on call advertising products. These intended and anticipated benefits included increasing our cash flow from operations, broadening our distribution offerings and delivering services that strengthen our advertiser relationships. In addition, our ability to maintain and grow revenues will also depend on maintaining and growing the number of domain name sales and the average revenue per domain. If we are unable to attract prospective buyers to purchase domains and at the price we value the domains, our revenue and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

 

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We do not control the means by which users access our web sites, and material changes to current navigation practices or technologies or marketing practices or significant increases in our marketing costs could result in a material adverse effect on our business.

The success of our proprietary web site traffic sources depends in large part upon consumer access to our web sites. Consumers access our web sites primarily through the following methods: directly accessing our web sites by typing descriptive keywords or keyword strings into the uniform resource locator (URL) address box of an Internet browser; accessing our web sites by clicking on bookmarked web sites; and accessing our web sites through search engines and directories.

Each of these methods requires the use of a third party product or service, such as an Internet browser or search engine application or directory. Internet browsers may provide alternatives to the URL address box to locate web sites, and search engines may from time to time change and establish rules regarding the indexing and optimization of web sites. We also market certain web sites through search engine applications. Historically, we have limited our search engine marketing to less than five leading search engines.

Product developments and market practices for these means of access to our web sites are not within our control. We may experience a decline in traffic to our web sites if third party browser technologies or search engine methodologies and rules are changed to our disadvantage. We have experienced abrupt search engine algorithm and policy changes in the past. We expect the search engine applications we utilize to market and drive users to our web sites to continue to periodically change their algorithms, policies and technologies. These changes may result in an interruption in user’s ability to access our web sites or impair our ability to maintain and grow the number of users who visit our web sites. We may also be forced to significantly increase marketing expenditures in the event that market prices for online advertising and paid-listings escalate. Any of these changes could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may experience unforeseen liabilities in connection with our acquisitions of Internet domain names or arising out of third party domain names included in our distribution network, which could negatively impact our financial results.

Certain of our acquisitions involved the acquisition of a large number of previously-owned Internet domain names. Furthermore, we have separately acquired and may acquire in the future additional previously-owned Internet domain names. In some cases, these acquired names may have trademark significance that is not readily apparent to us or is not identified by us in the bulk purchasing process. As a result we may face demands by third party trademark owners asserting infringement or dilution of their rights and seeking transfer of acquired Internet domain names under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy administered by ICANN or actions under the U.S. Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Additionally, we display pay-for-call or pay-per-click listings on third party domain names and third party web sites that are part of our distribution network, which also could subject us to a wide variety of civil claims including intellectual property ownership and infringement.

We intend to review each claim or demand which may arise from time to time on its merits on a case-by-case basis with the assistance of counsel and we intend to transfer any rights acquired by us to any party that has demonstrated a valid prior right or claim. We cannot, however, guarantee that we will be able to resolve these disputes without litigation. The potential violation of third party intellectual property rights and potential causes of action under consumer protection laws may subject us to unforeseen liabilities including injunctions and judgments for money damages.

 

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With the recent suspension of our previously announced spin off transaction, we may continue to explore various strategic alternatives for our Archeo assets.

In November 2012, we announced our intention to pursue the spin-off of our Archeo assets and in September 2013 following a strategic review, we announced the suspension of the planned spin-off of the Archeo assets in its previously announced form. At such time we announced our intention to explore various strategic alternatives for the Archeo assets. Archeo continues to operate as an independent division of the Company. We cannot predict whether Archeo will continue as such within our organization or whether we will pursue another strategic alternative for the Archeo assets going forward. If we do pursue another strategic alternative for the Archeo assets, there can be no assurances such efforts will be successful.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Our Industry

If we are unable to compete in the highly competitive performance-based advertising and search marketing industries, we may experience reduced demand for our products and services.

We operate in a highly competitive and changing environment. We principally compete with other companies which offer services in the following areas:

 

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sales to advertisers of pay-for-call services;

 

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sales to advertisers of pay-per-click services;

 

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aggregation or optimization of online advertising for distribution through mobile and online search engines and applications, product shopping engines, directories, web sites or other offline outlets;

 

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provision of local and vertical web sites containing information and user feedback designed to attract users and help consumers make better, more informed local decisions, while providing targeted advertising inventory for advertisers;

 

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delivery of pay-for-call advertising to end users or customers of advertisers through mobile and online destination web sites or other offline distribution outlets;

 

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delivery of online advertising to end users or customers of advertisers through mobile and online destination web sites or other offline distribution outlets;

 

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local search sales training;

 

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services and outsourcing of technologies that allow advertisers to manage their advertising campaigns across multiple networks and track the success of these campaigns;

 

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third party domain monetization;

 

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sales to advertisers of call tracking, call analytics, and presence management services; and

 

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sales to third parties of domain names.

Although we currently pursue a strategy that allows us to potentially partner with all relevant companies in the industry, there are certain companies in the industry that may not wish to partner with us. Despite the fact that we currently work with several of our potential competitors, there are no guarantees that these companies will continue to work with us in the future.

 

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We currently or potentially compete with leading search engines such as Google and Microsoft, digital advertising networks, mobile ad networks and call analytics technology providers. We also face competition on the call supply side, where competing companies look to outbid, partner with or otherwise secure sources of call supply we utilize. Our Archeo Domains Marketplace competitors include Demand Media, Name Media and Oversee.net. Many of these actual or perceived competitors also currently or may in the future have business relationships with us, particularly in distribution. However, such companies may terminate their relationships with us. Furthermore, our competitors may be able to secure agreements with us on more favorable terms, which could reduce the usage of our services, increase the amount payable to our distribution partners, reduce total revenue and thereby have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We expect competition to intensify in the future because current and new competitors can enter our market with little difficulty. The barriers to entering our market are relatively low. In fact, many current Internet and media companies presently have the technical capabilities and advertiser bases to enter the search marketing services industry. Further, if the consolidation trend continues among the larger media and search engine companies with greater brand recognition, the share of the market remaining for smaller search marketing services providers could decrease, even though the number of smaller providers could continue to increase. These factors could adversely affect our competitive position.

Some of our competitors, as well as potential entrants into our market, may be better positioned to succeed in this market. They may have:

 

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longer operating histories;

 

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more management experience;

 

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an employee base with more extensive experience;

 

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better geographic coverage;

 

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larger customer bases;

 

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greater brand recognition; and

 

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significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources.

Currently, and in the future, as the use of the Internet and other mobile and online services increases, there will likely be larger, more well-established and well-financed entities that acquire companies and/or invest in or form joint ventures in categories or countries of interest to us, all of which could adversely impact our business. Any of these trends could increase competition and reduce the demand for any of our services.

We face competition from traditional media companies, and we may not be included in the advertising budgets of large advertisers, which could harm our operating results.

In addition to Internet companies, we face competition from companies that offer traditional media advertising opportunities. Most large advertisers have set advertising budgets, a very small portion of which is allocated to Internet advertising. We expect that large advertisers will continue to focus most of their advertising efforts on traditional media. If we fail to convince these companies to spend a portion of their advertising budgets with us, or if our existing advertisers reduce the amount they spend on our programs, our operating results would be harmed.

 

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If we are not able to respond to the rapid technological change characteristic of our industry, our products and services may cease to be competitive.

The market for our products and services is characterized by rapid change in business models and technological infrastructure, and we will need to constantly adapt to changing markets and technologies to provide new and competitive products and services. If we are unable to ensure that our users, advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners have a high-quality experience with our products and services, then they may become dissatisfied and move to competitors’ products and services. Accordingly, our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to develop and offer competitive products and services for both our target market and for applications in new markets. We may not, however, be able to successfully do so, and our competitors may develop innovations that render our products and services obsolete or uncompetitive.

Our technical systems are vulnerable to interruption and damage that may be costly and time-consuming to resolve and may harm our business and reputation.

A disaster could interrupt our services for an indeterminate length of time and severely damage our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from:

 

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fire;

 

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floods;

 

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network failure;

 

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hardware failure;

 

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software failure;

 

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power loss;

 

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telecommunications failures;

 

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break-ins;

 

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terrorism, war or sabotage;

 

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computer viruses;

 

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denial of service attacks;

 

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penetration of our network by unauthorized computer users and “hackers” and other similar events;

 

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natural disasters, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes; and

 

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other unanticipated problems.

We may not have developed or implemented adequate protections or safeguards to overcome any of these events. We also may not have anticipated or addressed many of the potential events that could threaten or undermine our technology network. Any of these occurrences could cause material interruptions or delays in our business, result in the loss of data or render us unable to provide services to our customers. In addition, if a person is able to circumvent our security measures, he or she could destroy or misappropriate valuable information, including sensitive customer information, or disrupt our operations. We have deployed firewall hardware intended to thwart hacker attacks. Although we maintain property insurance and business interruption insurance, our insurance may not be adequate to

 

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compensate us for all losses that may occur as a result of a catastrophic system failure or other loss, and our insurers may not be able or may decline to do so for a variety of reasons. If we fail to address these issues in a timely manner, we may lose the confidence of our advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners, our revenue may decline and our business could suffer. In addition, as we expand our service offerings and enter into new business areas, we may be required to significantly modify and expand our software and technology platform. If we fail to accomplish these tasks in a timely manner, our business and reputation will likely suffer. Furthermore, some of these events could disrupt the economy and/or our customers’ business activities and in turn materially affect our operating results.

We rely on third party technology, platforms, carriers, communications providers, and server and hardware providers, and a failure of service by these providers could adversely affect our business and reputation.

We rely upon third party colocation providers to host our main servers. If these providers are unable to handle current or higher volumes of use, experience any interruption in operations or cease operations for any reason or if we are unable to agree on satisfactory terms for continued hosting relationships, we would be forced to enter into a relationship with other service providers or assume hosting responsibilities ourselves. If we are forced to switch hosting facilities, we may not be successful in finding an alternative service provider on acceptable terms or in hosting the computer servers ourselves. We may also be limited in our remedies against these providers in the event of a failure of service. In the past, we have experienced short-term outages in the service maintained by one of our colocation providers.

We also rely on a select group of third party providers for components of our technology platform and support for our advertising and call-based services, such as hardware and software providers, telecommunications carriers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, credit card processors and domain name registrars. As a result, key operational resources of our business are concentrated with a limited number of third party providers. A failure or limitation of service or available capacity by any of these third party providers could adversely affect our business and reputation. Furthermore, if any of these significant providers are unable to provide the levels of service and dedicated resources over time that we required in our business, we may not be able to replace certain of these providers in a manner that is efficient, cost-effective or satisfactory to our customers, and as a result our business could be materially and adversely affected. Short term or repeat problems with any of these service providers could provide an interruption of service or service quality impairment to significant customers, which could also impact materially our revenue in any period due to credits or potential loss of significant customers.

If our security measures are breached or are perceived as not being secure, we may lose advertisers, reseller partners and distribution partners and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure.

We store and transmit data and information about our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and their respective users. We deploy security measures to protect this data and information, as do third parties we utilize to assist in data and information storage. Our security measures and those of the third parties we partner with to assist in data and information storage may suffer breaches. Security breaches of our data storage systems or our third party colocation and technology providers we utilize to store data and information relating to our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and their respective users could expose us to significant potential liability. In addition, security breaches, actual or perceived, could result in the loss of advertisers, reseller partners and distribution partners that could potentially have an adverse effect on our business.

 

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We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights, which could result in our competitors marketing competing products and services utilizing our intellectual property and could adversely affect our competitive position.

Our success and ability to compete effectively are substantially dependent upon our internally developed and acquired technology and data resources, which we protect through a combination of copyright, trade secret, and patent and trademark law. To date, we have had issued or have applications pending for the following patents:

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,668,950 entitled “Automatically Updating Performance-Based Online Advertising System and Method” was issued February 23, 2010.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,442,862 entitled “Method and System for Tracking Telephone Calls” was issued on May 14, 2013 and a corresponding divisional Patent Application Number 13/294,436 was filed November 11, 2011. The following divisional applications of Patent Application Number 13/294,436 were also filed: 14/045,536 titled “Method and System for Phone Number Cleaning” was filed November 3, 201; 14/058,037 titled “Method and System for Collecting Data from Advertising Campaigns Including Phone Number Placement Techniques” was filed November 18, 2013; 14/058,080 titled “Method and System for Monitoring Campaign Referral Sources” was filed November 18, 2013, and 14/065,345 titled “Method and System for Tracking Telephone Calls” was filed November 28, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 6,822,663 entitled “Transform Rule Generator for Web-Based Markup Languages” was issued November 23, 2004.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,583,571 entitled “Facility for Reconciliation of Business Records Using Genetic Algorithms” was issued on November 12, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,433,048 entitled “System and Method to Direct Telephone Calls to Advertisers” was issued April 30, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 12/829,373 entitled “System and Method for Calling Advertised Telephone Numbers on a Computing Device” was filed July 1, 2010.

 

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U.S Patent Number 8,259,915 entitled “System and Method to Analyze Calls to Advertised Telephone Numbers” was issued September 4, 2012 and its continuation Patent Application Number 13/603,283 was filed September 4, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/176,709 entitled “Method and System for Automatically Generating Advertising Creatives” was filed July 5, 2011.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 12/844,488 entitled “Systems and Methods for Blocking Telephone Calls” was filed on July 27, 2010,

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,212,615 entitled “Criteria Based Marketing For Telephone Directory Assistance” was issued May 1, 2007 and owned by Jingle Networks, which we acquired in 2011.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,702,084 entitled “Toll-Free Directory Assistance With Preferred Advertisement Listing” was issued April 20, 2010.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,961,861 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Response Location Advertising” was issued June 14, 2011 and corresponding European Application Number 5826299.99 was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 11/290,148 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Advertising Based On Past History Of Requests” was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 11/291,094 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Keyword Map To Advertising” was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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•

U.S. Patent Number 8,175,231 entitled “Toll-Free Directory Assistance With Automatic Selection Of An Advertisement From A Category” issued May 8, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,107,602 entitled “Directory Assistance With Data Processing Station” was issued January 31, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/677,248 entitled “System and Method to Customize a Connection Interface for Multimodal Connection to a Telephone Number” was filed November 14, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/756,380 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing an Automated Filtering Function” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/756,441 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing a Pooling Algorithm” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/756,480 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing a Sampling Algorithm” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/865,966 entitled “Correlated Consumer Telephone Numbers and User Identifiers for Advertising Retargeting was filed April 18, 2013, claiming priority to U.S. Patent Application Number 61/801,893 entitled “Cross-Channel Targeting Using Historical Online and Call Data” filed March 15, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/842,769 entitled “System and Method for Analyzing and Classifying Calls without Transcription” was filed March 15, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 14/045,118 entitled “System and Method for Analyzing and Classifying Calls Without Transcription via Keyword Spotting” was filed October 3, 2013.

In the future, additional patents may be filed with respect to internally developed or acquired technologies. Our industry is highly competitive and many individuals and companies have sought to patent processes in the industry. We may decide not to protect certain intellectual properties or business methods which may later turn out to be significant to us. In addition, the patent process takes several years and involves considerable expense. Further, patent applications and patent positions in our industry are highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions due in part to the number of competing technologies. As a result, we may not be able to successfully prosecute these patents, in whole or in part, or any additional patent filings that we may make in the future. We also depend on our trademarks, trade names and domain names. We may not be able to adequately protect our technology and data resources. In addition, intellectual property laws vary from country to country, and it may be more difficult to protect our intellectual property in some foreign jurisdictions in which we may plan to enter. If we fail to obtain and maintain patent or other intellectual property protection for our technology, our competitors could market competing products and services utilizing our technology.

Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties domestically and internationally may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our services, technology and other intellectual property. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent any misappropriation or confusion among consumers and advertisers. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use, our competitive position could be adversely affected.

 

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We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, which could be expensive and time consuming.

We may initiate patent litigation against third parties to protect or enforce our patent rights, and we may be sued by others seeking to invalidate our patents or prevent the issuance of future patents. We may also become subject to interference proceedings conducted in the patent and trademark offices of various countries to determine the priority of inventions. The defense and prosecution, if necessary, of intellectual property suits, interference proceedings and related legal and administrative proceedings is costly and may divert our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. We may not prevail in any of these suits. An adverse determination of any litigation or defense proceedings could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not being issued. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, during the course of this kind of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments in the litigation. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the trading price of our Class B common stock.

Our quarterly results of operations might fluctuate due to seasonality, which could adversely affect our growth rate and in turn the market price of our securities.

Our quarterly results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future due to seasonal fluctuations in the level of mobile and Internet usage and seasonal purchasing cycles of many advertisers. Our experience has shown that during the spring and summer months of the year, mobile and Internet usage is lower than during other times of the year and during the latter part of the fourth quarter of the calendar year we generally experience lower call volume and reduced demand for calls. The extent to which usage and call volume may decrease during these off-peak periods is difficult to predict. Prolonged or severe decreases in usage and call volume during these periods may adversely affect our growth rate and in turn the market price of our securities. Additionally, the current business environment has resulted in many advertisers and reseller partners reducing advertising and marketing services budgets or changing such budgets throughout the year, which may impact our quarterly results of operations in addition to typical seasonality seen in our industry. Our quarterly results will also be impacted by the timing of domain name sales which were recognized as revenue starting in September 2013 with the launch of our Domains Marketplace.

We are susceptible to general economic conditions, and a downturn in advertising and marketing spending by advertisers could adversely affect our operating results.

Our operating results will be subject to fluctuations based on general economic conditions, in particular those conditions that impact advertiser-consumer transactions. Deterioration in economic conditions could cause decreases in or delays in advertising spending and reduce and/or negatively impact our short term ability to grow our revenues. Further, any decreased collectability of accounts receivable or early termination of agreements due to deterioration in economic conditions could negatively impact our results of operations.

 

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We depend on the growth of mobile technologies, the Internet and the Internet infrastructure for our future growth and any decrease in growth or anticipated growth in mobile and Internet usage could adversely affect our business prospects.

Our future revenue and profits, if any, depend upon the continued widespread use of mobile technologies and the Internet as an effective commercial and business medium. Factors which could reduce the widespread use of mobile technologies (including mobile devices, in particular) and the Internet include:

 

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possible disruptions or other damage to the mobile, Internet or telecommunications infrastructure and networks;

 

•

failure of the individual networking infrastructures of our advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners to alleviate potential overloading and delayed response times;

 

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a decision by advertisers and consumers to spend more of their marketing dollars on offline programs;

 

•

increased governmental regulation and taxation; and

 

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actual or perceived lack of security or privacy protection.

In particular, concerns over the security of online transactions and the privacy of users, including the risk of identity theft, may inhibit the growth of Internet usage, including commercial transactions. In order for the mobile and online commerce market to develop successfully, we and other market participants must be able to transmit confidential information, including credit card information, securely over public networks. Any decrease in anticipated mobile and Internet growth and usage could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects.

We are exposed to risks associated with credit card fraud and credit payment, and we may continue to suffer losses as a result of fraudulent data or payment failure by advertisers.

We have suffered losses and may continue to suffer losses as a result of payments made with fraudulent credit card data. Our failure to control fraudulent credit card transactions could reduce our net revenue and gross margin and negatively impact our standing with applicable credit card authorization agencies. In addition, under limited circumstances, we extend credit to advertisers who may default on their accounts payable to us or fraudulently “charge-back” amounts on their credit cards for services that have already been delivered by us.

Regulation of E-Commerce, Online Tracking, Online Data Collection, and Use of the Internet may adversely affect our business and operating results.

Mobile and online search, e-commerce and related businesses face uncertainty related to new or future government regulation at the federal, state, and international levels regarding e-commerce, online tracking, online data collection, and use of the Internet. Due to the rapid growth and widespread use of the Internet, state and federal legislatures (both domestically and abroad) have enacted and may continue to enact various laws and regulations relating to the Internet. Individual states may also enact consumer protection laws that are more restrictive than the ones that already exist.

Furthermore, the application of existing laws and regulations to companies that engage in e-commerce, or otherwise interact with the Internet remains somewhat unclear. For example, as a result of the actions of advertisers in our network, we may be subject to existing laws and regulations relating to a wide variety of issues such as consumer privacy, gambling,

 

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sweepstakes, advertising, promotions, defamation, pricing, taxation, financial market regulation, quality of products and services, computer trespass, spyware, adware, child protection and intellectual property ownership and infringement. In addition, it is not clear whether existing laws that require licenses or permits for certain of our advertisers’ lines of business apply to us, including those related to insurance and securities brokerage, law offices and pharmacies. Existing federal and state laws that may affect the growth and profitability of our business include, among others:

 

•

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides protection from copyright liability for online service providers that list or link to third party web sites. We currently qualify for the safe harbor under the DMCA; however, if it were determined that we did not meet the safe harbor requirements, we could be exposed to copyright infringement litigation, which could be costly and time-consuming.

 

•

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) restricts the online collection of personal information about children and the use of that information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the authority to impose fines and penalties upon web site operators and online service providers that do not comply with the law. We do not currently offer any web sites or online services “directed to children,” nor do we knowingly collect personal information from children.

 

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The Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act requires online service providers to report evidence of violations of federal child pornography laws under certain circumstances.

 

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The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act of 2003 establishes requirements for those who send commercial e-mails, spells out penalties for entities that transmit noncompliant commercial e-mail and/or whose products are advertised in noncompliant commercial e-mail and gives consumers the right to opt-out of receiving commercial e-mails. The majority of the states also have adopted similar statutes governing the transmission of commercial e-mail. The FTC and the states, as applicable, are authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act and the state-specific statutes, respectively. CAN-SPAM gives the Department of Justice the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators as well.

 

•

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act prevents private entities from disclosing Internet subscriber records and the contents of electronic communications, subject to certain exceptions.

 

•

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other federal and state laws protect computer users from unauthorized computer access/hacking, and other actions by third parties which may be viewed as a violation of privacy. Courts may apply each of these laws in unintended and unexpected ways. As a company that provides services over the Internet as well as call recording and call tracking services, we may be subject to an action brought under any of these or future laws.

 

•

Among the types of legislation currently being considered at the federal and state levels are consumer laws regulating for the use of certain types of software applications or downloads and the use of “cookies.” These proposed laws are intended to target specific types of software applications often referred to as “spyware,” “invasiveware” or “adware,” and may also cover certain applications currently used in the online advertising industry to serve and distribute advertisements. In addition, the FTC has sought inquiry regarding the implementation of a “do-not-track” requirement. Federal legislation is also expected to be introduced that would regulate “online behavioral

 

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advertising” practices. If passed, these laws would impose new obligations for companies that use such software applications or technologies. At least one state already has enacted a law, which went into effect in January 2014, regarding online tracking.

Many Internet services are automated, and companies such as ours may be unknowing conduits for illegal or prohibited materials. It is possible that some courts may impose a strict liability standard or require such companies to monitor their customers’ conduct. Although we would not be responsible or involved in any way in such illegal conduct, it is possible that we would somehow be held responsible for the actions of our advertisers or distribution partners.

We may also be subject to costs and liabilities with respect to privacy issues. Several companies have incurred penalties for failing to abide by the representations made in their public-facing privacy policies. In addition, several states have passed laws that require businesses to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect sensitive personal information and to provide notice to consumers in the event of a security breach. Further, it is anticipated that additional federal and state privacy-related legislation will be enacted. Such legislation could negatively affect our business.

In addition, foreign governments may pass laws that could negatively impact our business and/or may prosecute us for violating existing laws. Such laws might include EU member country conforming legislation under applicable EU Privacy, eCommerce, Telecommunications and Data Protection Directives. Any costs incurred in addressing foreign laws could negatively affect the viability of our business. Our exposure to this risk will increase to the extent we expand our operations internationally.

Federal and state regulation of telecommunications may adversely affect our business and operating results.

Subsidiaries of the Company provide information and analytics services to certain advertisers and reseller partners that may include information services. In connection therewith, the Company, through its subsidiaries, obtains certain telecommunications products and services from carriers in order to deliver these packages of information and analytic services.

Telecommunications laws and regulations (and interpretations thereof) are evolving in response to rapid changes in the telecommunications industry. If our carrier partners were to be subject to any changes in applicable law or regulation (or interpretations thereof), or additional taxes or surcharges, then we in turn may be subject to increased costs for their products and services or receive products and services that may be of less value to our customers, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results. Furthermore, our call recording and pay-for-call services may directly subject us to certain telecommunications-related regulations. Finally, in the event that any federal or state regulators were to expand the scope of applicable laws and regulations or their application to include certain end users and information service providers, then our business and operating results could also be adversely affected. The following existing and possible future federal and state laws could impact the growth and profitability of our business:

 

•

The Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the “Act”), and the regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission under Title II of the Act, may impose federal licensing, reporting and other regulatory obligations on the Company. To the extent we contract with and use the networks of voice over IP service providers, new legislation or FCC regulation in this area could restrict our business, prevent us from offering service or increase our cost of

 

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doing business. There are an increasing number of regulations and rulings that specifically address access to commerce and communications services on the Internet, including IP telephony. We are unable to predict the impact, if any, that future legislation, legal decisions or regulations concerning voice services offered via the Internet may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

•

The U.S. Congress, the FCC, state legislatures or state agencies may target, among other things, access or settlement charges, imposing taxes related to Internet communications, imposing tariffs or other regulations based on encryption concerns, or the characteristics and quality of products and services that we may offer. Any new laws or regulations concerning these or other areas of our business could restrict our growth or increase our cost of doing business.

 

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The FCC has initiated a proceeding regarding the regulation of broadband services. The increasing growth of the broadband IP telephony market and popularity of broadband IP telephony products and services heighten the risk that the FCC or other legislative bodies will seek to regulate broadband IP telephony and the Internet. In addition, large, established telecommunication companies may devote substantial lobbying efforts to influence the regulation of the broadband IP telephony market, which may be contrary to our interests.

 

•

There is risk that a regulatory agency will require us to conform to rules that are unsuitable for IP communications technologies or rules that cannot be complied with due to the nature and efficiencies of IP routing, or are unnecessary or unreasonable in light of the manner in which we offer voice-related services such as call recording and pay-for-call services to our customers.

 

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Federal and state telemarketing laws including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Telemarketing Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

 

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Laws affecting telephone call recording and data protection, such as consent and personal data statutes. Under the federal Wiretap Act, at least one party taking part in a call must be notified if the call is being recorded. Under this law, and most state laws, there is nothing illegal about one of the parties to a telephone call recording the conversation. However, several states (i.e., California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington) require that all parties consent when one party wants to record a telephone conversation. The telephone recording laws in other states, like federal law, require only one party to be aware of the recording. A Wiretap Act violation is a Class D felony; the maximum authorized penalties for a violation of section 2511(1) of the Wiretap Act are imprisonment of not more than five years and a fine under Title 18. Authorized fines are typically not more than $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for an organization, unless there is a substantial loss. State laws impose similar penalties.

 

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The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act may require that the Company undertake material modifications to its platforms and processes to permit wiretapping and other access for law enforcement personnel.

 

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Under various Orders of the Federal Communications Commission, the Company may be required to make material retroactive and prospective contributions to funds intended to support Universal Service, Telecommunications Relay Service, Local Number Portability, the North American Numbering Plan and the budget of the Federal Communications Commission.

 

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•

Laws in most states of the United States of America may require registration or licensing of one or more subsidiaries of the Company, and may impose additional taxes, fees or telecommunications surcharges on the provision of the Company’s services which the Company may not be able to pass through to customers.

State and local governments may in the future be permitted to levy additional taxes on Internet access and electronic commerce transactions, which could result in a decrease in the level of usage of our services. In addition, we may be required to pay additional income, sales, or other taxes.

On November 19, 2004, the federal government passed legislation placing a ban on state and local governments’ imposition of new taxes on Internet access or electronic commerce transactions which expires in November 2014. The proposed Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 if enacted into law would allow states to require online and other out of state merchants to collect and remit sales and use tax on products and services that they may sell. An increase in taxes may make electronic commerce transactions less attractive for advertisers and businesses, which could result in a decrease in the level of usage of our services. Additionally, from time to time, various state, federal and other jurisdictional tax authorities undertake reviews of the Company and the Company’s filings. In evaluating the exposure associated with various tax filing positions, the Company on occasion accrues charges for probable exposures. We cannot predict the outcome of any of these reviews.

Risks Relating to the Offering and Ownership of our Class B common stock

Our Class B common stock prices have been and are likely to continue to be highly volatile.

The trading prices of our Class B common stock have been and are likely to continue to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations. Since our initial public offering, the closing sale price of our Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market ranged from $3.00 to $26.14 per share through December 31, 2013. Our stock prices may fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, which may be the result of our business strategy or events beyond our control, including:

 

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developments concerning proprietary rights, including patents, by us or a competitor;

 

•

announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, financings, commercial relationships, joint ventures or capital commitments;

 

•

registration of additional shares of Class B common stock in connection with acquisitions;

 

•

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;

 

•

lawsuits initiated against us or lawsuits initiated by us;

 

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announcements of acquisitions or technical innovations;

 

•

potential loss or reduced contributions from distribution partners, reseller partners and agencies, or advertisers;

 

•

changes in growth or earnings estimates or recommendations by analysts;

 

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changes in the market valuations of similar companies;

 

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changes in our industry and the overall economic environment;

 

•

volume of shares of Class B common stock available for public sale, including upon conversion of Class A common stock or upon exercise of stock options;

 

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•

Class B common stock repurchases under our previously announced share repurchase program;

 

•

sales and purchases of stock by us or by our stockholders, including sales by certain of our executive officers and directors pursuant to written pre-determined selling and purchase plans under Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”); and

 

•

short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions on shares of our Class B common stock.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the NASDAQ Global Select Market and the market for mobile and online commerce companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the listed companies. These broad market and industry factors may seriously harm the market price of our Class B common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies.

Litigation against us, whether or not judgment is entered against us, could result in substantial costs and potentially economic loss, and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources, any of which could seriously harm our financial condition. Additionally, there can be no assurance that an active trading market of our Class B common stock will be sustained.

Sales of substantial amounts of our Class B common stock in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could reduce the price that our Class B common stock might otherwise attain and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market following this offering, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our Class B common stock and may make it more difficult for you to sell your Class B common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. Based on the number of shares outstanding as of March 18, 2014, upon the closing of this offering, we will have outstanding 36,327,308 shares of Class B common stock. The shares of our Class B common stock being sold in this offering may be resold immediately in the public market unless they are held by “affiliates,” as that term is defined in Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).

Subject to certain exceptions described under the caption “Underwriting,” we, our directors and officers and the selling stockholders have agreed not to offer, sell or agree to sell, directly or indirectly, any shares of Class B common stock without the permission of the representatives of the underwriters for a period of 90 days, or 180 days in the case of the selling stockholders, from the date of this prospectus supplement. When the lock-up period expires, we and our locked-up security holders will be able to sell our shares in the public market. In addition, the underwriters may, in their sole discretion, release all or some portion of the shares subject to lock-up agreements prior to expiration of the lock-up period. Sales of a substantial number of such shares upon expiration, or the perception that such sales may occur, or early release, of the lock-up could cause our share price to fall or make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. We also may issue our shares of Class B common stock or securities convertible into our Class B common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, an acquisition, investments or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

 

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If securities analysts do not continue to publish research or publish negative research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class B common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes negative research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock and demand for our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Our executive officer founders control the outcome of stockholder voting, and there may be an adverse effect on the price of our Class B common stock due to the disparate voting rights of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock.

As of December 31, 2013, Russell C. Horowitz, Ethan A. Caldwell and Peter Christothoulou, our executive officer founders, beneficially owned 100% of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock, which shares represented 86% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our capital stock. These executive officer founders together control 87% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our capital stock. The holders of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock have identical rights except that the holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of our Class A common stock are entitled to twenty-five votes per share on all matters to be voted on by stockholders. This concentration of control could be disadvantageous to our other stockholders with interests different from those of these executive officer founders. This difference in the voting rights of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock could adversely affect the price of our Class B common stock to the extent that investors or any potential future purchaser of our shares of Class B common stock give greater value to the superior voting rights of our Class A common stock. Further, as long as these executive officer founders have a controlling interest, they will continue to be able to elect all or a majority of our board of directors and generally be able to determine the outcome of all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval. As a result, these executive officer founders will be in a position to continue to control all fundamental matters affecting our company, including any merger involving, sale of substantially all of the assets of, or change in control of, our company. The ability of these executive officer founders to control our company may result in our Class B common stock trading at a price lower than the price at which such stock would trade if these executive officer founders did not have a controlling interest in us. This control may deter or prevent a third party from acquiring us which could adversely affect the market price of our Class B common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions may limit the ability of another party to acquire us, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our certificate of incorporation, as amended, our by-laws and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a third party from acquiring us, even if doing so may be beneficial to our stockholders. In addition, these provisions could limit the price investors would be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class B common stock. The following are examples of such provisions in our certificate of incorporation, as amended, or our by-laws:

 

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the authorized number of our directors can be changed only by a resolution of our board of directors;

 

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advance notice is required for proposals that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;

 

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•

there are limitations on who may call stockholder meetings; and

 

•

our board of directors is authorized, without prior stockholder approval, to create and issue “blank check” preferred stock.

We are also subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which provides, subject to enumerated exceptions, that if a person acquires 15% or more of our voting stock, the person is an “interested stockholder” and may not engage in “business combinations” with us for a period of three years from the time the person acquired 15% or more of our voting stock. The application of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company.

We may not be able to continue to pay dividends on our Class B common stock in the future which could impair the value of such stock.

Under Delaware law, dividends to stockholders may be made only from the surplus of a company, or, in certain situations, from the net profits for the current fiscal year or the fiscal year before which the dividend is declared. We have initiated and paid a quarterly dividend on our Class B common stock since November 2006. We accelerated and paid all four of our 2013 quarterly cash dividends on December 31, 2012. In January 2014, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.02 per share on our Class A and Class B common stock, which was paid on February 18, 2014 to the holders of record as of the close of business on February 7, 2014. There is no assurance that we will be able to pay dividends in the future. Our ability to pay dividends in the future will depend on our financial results, liquidity and financial condition.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the proceeds we receive in this offering and may not apply the proceeds in ways that increase the value of your investment.

Our management generally will have broad discretion to use the net proceeds to us from this offering, and you will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of these proceeds. Our management might not apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that increase the value of your investment. Except as described in the section of this prospectus supplement captioned “Use of Proceeds,” we have not allocated the net proceeds from this offering for any specific purposes. Until we use the net proceeds to us from this offering, we plan to invest them, and these investments may not yield a favorable rate of return. If we do not invest or apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus supplement, the accompanying base prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein and therein contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us.

Additionally, statements concerning future matters and other statements regarding matters that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events, and our future results are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Actual results may vary materially from such expectations. Words such as “may,” “should,” “intends,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” or variations of such words and similar expressions, or the negative of such terms, may help identify such forward-looking statements. Any statements that refer to projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth and trends in our business, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances, are forward-looking. In addition to matters affecting the technology industry or the economy generally, factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations stated in forward-looking statements include, among others, the factors described in “Risk Factors” herein and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and our other original filings with the SEC that are incorporated herein by reference. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this prospectus supplement. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance occurring after the date of this prospectus supplement, currently unknown facts or conditions or the occurrence of unanticipated events.

You should read this prospectus supplement completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by each of these cautionary statements.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of the 2,857,000 shares of our Class B common stock we are offering, at the public offering price of $             per share, will be approximately $             million, or approximately $             million if the underwriters fully exercise their over-allotment option, in each case after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and offering expenses. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of Class B common stock by the selling stockholders.

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions or licenses of, or investments in, products, services, technologies or other businesses.

Pending application of the net proceeds of this offering for the foregoing purposes, we expect to invest such net proceeds in investment grade corporate bond securities as well as short- and medium-term bank deposits and certificates of deposit.

 

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PRICE RANGE OF CLASS B COMMON STOCK

Our Class B common stock is quoted on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “MCHX.” The following table sets forth, for the fiscal quarters indicated, the high and low closing sale prices of our Class B common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market.

 

		Class B Common Stock
		High				Low
Fiscal 2012 Quarter Ended:
March 31, 2012		$	6.25			$	4.03
June 30, 2012			4.47				3.19
September 30, 2012			4.26				3.08
December 31, 2012			4.46				3.64
Fiscal 2013 Quarter Ended:
March 31, 2013			4.41				3.52
June 30, 2013			6.14				3.72
September 30, 2013			7.75				5.87
December 31, 2013			9.90				7.15
Fiscal 2014 Quarter Ended:
March 31, 2013 (through March 18, 2014)			12.36				8.89

On March 18, 2014, the last sale price of our Class B common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market was $12.01 per share.

As of March 18, 2014, there were approximately 49 shareholders of record of our Class B common stock. A substantially greater number of holders of our Class B common stock are “street name” or beneficial holders, whose shares are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

Under Delaware law, dividends to stockholders may be made only from the surplus of a company, or, in certain situations, from the net profits for the current fiscal year or the fiscal year before which the dividend is declared. We have initiated and paid a quarterly dividend on our Class B common stock since November 2006. We accelerated and paid all four of our 2013 quarterly cash dividends on December 31, 2012. In January 2014, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.02 per share on our Class A and Class B common stock, which was paid on February 18, 2014 to the holders of record as of the close of business on February 7, 2014. There is no assurance that we will be able to pay dividends in the future. Our ability to pay dividends in the future will depend on our financial results, liquidity and financial condition.

 

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PRINCIPAL HOLDERS OF VOTING SECURITIES

To the Company’s knowledge, the following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock as of March 18, 2014 by:

 

•

each person (or group of affiliated persons) who is known by us to own beneficially more than 5% of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock or Class B common stock;

 

•

each of our directors;

 

•

each of our executive officers; and

 

•

all of our directors and executive officers as a group.

Percentage of beneficial ownership prior to this offering is based on 5,232,636 shares of our Class A common stock and 33,470,308 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding as of March 18, 2014, which reflects the conversion by the selling stockholders of an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class A common stock into an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering. Percentage of beneficial ownership after this offering is based on 5,232,636 shares of our Class A common stock and 36,327,308 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding immediately after the completion of this offering (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option and the conversion by the selling stockholders of an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class A common stock into an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering). In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage ownership of that person, shares of common stock subject to options or restricted stock units held by that person that are currently exercisable or exercisable or issuable upon vesting within 60 days are deemed outstanding. These shares are not, however, deemed outstanding for the purposes of computing the percentage ownership of any other person. Except as otherwise noted below, the address for each beneficial owner listed below is c/o Marchex, Inc., 520 Pike Street, Suite 2000, Seattle, Washington 98101.

 

		Shares Beneficially Owned Prior  to this Offering																								Shares Beneficially Owned After this Offering^
		Class A Common Stock								Class B Common Stock								% of Total Voting Power#				Number of Shares Being Offered^				Class A Common Stock								Class B Common Stock^								% of Total Voting Power#^
Name of Beneficial Owner		Shares				%				Shares				%												Shares				%				Shares				%
5% Stockholders:
Archon Capital Management LLC(1)			—				—				2,825,986				8.4	%			1.7	%			—				—				—				2,825,986				7.8	%			1.7	%
1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3008 Seattle, WA 98101
Michael L. Yagemann(2)			—				—				1,823,807				5.5	%			1.1	%			—				—				—				1,823,807				5.0	%			1.1	%
377 Eagle Drive Jupiter, FL 33477
Named Executive Officers and Directors:
Russell C. Horowitz(3)			4,660,927				89.1	%			3,780,784				11.1	%			72.9	%			2,651,653				4,660,927				89.1	%			1,129,131				3.1	%			70.0	%
Michael Arends(4)			—				—				1,003,240				2.9	%			*				—				—				—				1,003,240				2.7	%			*
Ethan Caldwell(5)			395,209				3.4	%			797,155				2.4	%			6.3	%			71,425				395,209				3.4	%			725,730				2.0	%			6.2	%
Peter Christothoulou(6)			176,500				7.5	%			1,261,765				3.7	%			3.1	%			133,922				176,500				7.5	%			1,127,843				3.1	%			3.0	%
Michael Miller(7)			—				—				90,812				*				*				—				—				—				90,812				*				*
Dennis Cline(8)			—				—				169,000				*				*				—				—				—				169,000				*				*
Anne Devereux-Mills(9)			—				—				114,800				*				*				—				—				—				114,800				*				*
Nicolas J. Hanauer(10)			—				—				2,552,500				7.6	%			1.4	%			—				—				—				2,552,500				7.0	%			1.3	%
M. Wayne Wisehart(11)			—				—				140,150				*				*				—				—				—				140,150				*				*
All executive officers and directors as a group (9 persons)(12)			5,232,636				100	%			9,910,206				27.6	%			84.2	%			2,857,000				5,232,636				100	%			7,053,206				18.2	%			81.0	%

Except as indicated in the footnotes below and except as subject to community property laws where applicable, the persons named in the table above have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock shown as beneficially owned by them.

 

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*	Beneficial ownership or total voting power, as the case may be, representing less than one percent.

^	Assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares.

#

Percentage of voting power represents voting power with respect to shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock, as a single class. Each holder of Class A common stock shall be entitled to 25 votes per share of Class A common stock and each holder of Class B common stock shall be entitled to 1 vote per share of Class B common stock on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders, except as may otherwise be required by law. The Class A common stock is convertible at any time by the holder into shares of Class B common stock on a share-for-share basis.

1

Based on the most recently available Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 14, 2014 by Archon Capital Management LLC (“Archon”), an investment advisor on its behalf and on behalf of Constantinos Christofilis, whose address is 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3008, Seattle, Washington 98101, an individual and managing member of Strategos Master Fund, L.P., a limited partnership, whose address is c/o Maples & Calder, P.O. Box 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104, Cayman Islands. Archon and Constantinos Christofilis each report beneficial ownership of 2,825,986 shares of our Class B common stock, and shared voting and dispositive power as to 2,825,986 shares of our Class B common stock. Strategos Master Fund, L.P. reports beneficial ownership of 1,625,686 shares of our Class B common stock and shared voting and dispositive power as to 1,625,686 shares of our Class B common stock.

2

Based on the most recently available Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on January 24, 2014 by Michael L. Yagemann, an individual. Mr. Yagemann reports beneficial ownership of 1,823,807 shares of our Class B common stock, which includes (i) 750,000 shares of Class B Common Stock held by Greenbridge Fund LP (the “Fund”), whose general partner is Greenbridge Capital, LLC, whose managing member is Mr. Yagemann, (ii) 61,500 shares of Class B Common Stock held by Michael Yagemann Roth IRA, (iii) 965,000 shares of Class B Common Stock held by Yagemann Revocable Trust, of which Mr. Yagemann and his spouse, Marian S. Yagemann, are the grantors, co-trustees and beneficiaries, (iv) 30,000 shares of Class B Common Stock held by Yagemann Family Trust, of which Mr. Yagemann’s spouse, Marian S. Yagemann, is the trustee, and (v) 17,307 shares of Class B Common Stock held by Marian Yagemann Roth IRA. Mr. Yagemann disclaims beneficial ownership of the shares of Class B Common Stock described in clauses (iv) and (v) above, except to the extent of his pecuniary interest therein.

3

Includes: (1) 4,660,927 shares of our Class A common stock held by MARRCH Investments, LLC; (2) 236,888 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; (3) 568,897 shares of our Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014; (4) 5,000 shares of Class B common stock held in an Individual Retirement Account for the benefit of Mr. Horowitz; and (5) 500,000 shares of Class A common stock which are pledged as security by MARRCH Investments, LLC in connection with a brokerage investment account agreement. Mr. Horowitz is the managing member of MARRCH Investments, LLC and, as such, may be deemed to exercise voting and investment power over the shares held by all of these entities. Reflects the conversion of 2,441,079 shares of our Class A common stock into 2,441,079 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering.

4

Includes: (1) 212,900 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; (2) 565,969 shares of our Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014; (3) 10,500 shares of our Class B common stock held by the Nicole Marie Arends 2003 Trust for the benefit of Nicole Marie Arends, the daughter of Mr. Arends, for which shares Mr. Arends disclaims beneficial ownership; (4) 18,100 shares of Class B common stock held in an Individual Retirement Account for the benefit of Mr. Arends; and (5) 6,500 shares of Class B common stock held in an Individual Retirement Account for the benefit of Diana Arends, Mr. Arends’ wife.

5

Includes: (1) 180,550 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 304,094 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014. Reflects the conversion of 80,000 shares of our Class A common stock into 80,000 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering.

6	Includes: (1) 292,688 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 566,822 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

7	Includes: (1) 30,500 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 60,313 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

8

Includes: (1) 20,000 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; (2) 52,000 shares of our Class B common stock held by DMC Investments, LLC, a limited liability company of which Mr. Cline is the managing member; (3) 15,000 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014; and (4) 10,000 shares in the aggregate of our Class B common stock held by four different trusts for the benefit of his children, for which shares Mr. Cline disclaims beneficial ownership.

9	Includes: (1) 17,100 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 40,000 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

10	Includes: (1) 13,750 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 300,000 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

11	Includes (1) 17,850 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 40,000 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

 

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12

Includes an aggregate of: (1) 5,232,636 shares of our Class A common stock; (2) 7,449,112 shares of our Class B common stock (including 20,500 shares for which beneficial ownership has been disclaimed); and (3) 2,461,094 shares of our Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

 

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SELLING STOCKHOLDERS

The following table sets forth information regarding the selling stockholders’ beneficial ownership of our Class B common stock as of March 18, 2014 (which reflects the conversion by the selling stockholders of an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class A common stock into an aggregate of 2,521,079 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering) and the number of shares being sold in this offering by the selling stockholders. We have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 514,100 shares of our Class B common stock and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 343,000 shares of our Class B common stock, each pursuant to the underwriters’ option.

We have determined beneficial ownership in accordance with SEC rules. The information does not necessarily indicate beneficial ownership for any other purpose. Except as indicated in the footnotes to this table and pursuant to state community property laws, we believe, based on the information furnished to us, that the persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares reflected as beneficially owned by them. In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage ownership of that person, shares of Class B common stock that could be issued upon the exercise of outstanding options held by that person that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days are considered outstanding. These shares, however, are not considered outstanding when computing the percentage ownership of any other person.

 

		Shares Beneficially Owned Prior to the Offering								Number of Shares Offered				Shares Beneficially Owned After the Offering								Number of Shares Subject to Underwriters’ Option				Shares Beneficially Owned After the Offering if Underwriters’ Option is Exercised in Full
Name and Title of Selling Stockholder		Shares(#)				Voting Percentage (%)(#)								Shares(#)				Voting Percentage (%)(#)								Shares(#)				Voting Percentage (%)(#)
Russell C. Horowitz(1)			8,441,711				72.9	%			2,651,653				5,790,058				70.0	%			318,347				5,471,711				69.6	%
Peter Christothoulou(2)			1,438,265				3.1	%			133,922				1,304,343				3.0	%			16,078				1,288,265				3.0	%
Ethan Caldwell(3)			1,192,364				6.3	%			71,425				1,120,939				6.2	%			8,575				1,112,364				6.1	%

 

*	Less than 1%

(#)

Number of shares and percentage represents number of shares held and voting power with respect to shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock, as a single class, respectively. Each holder of Class A common stock shall be entitled to 25 votes per share of Class A common stock and each holder of Class B common stock shall be entitled to 1 vote per share of Class B common stock on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders, except as may otherwise be required by law. The Class A common stock is convertible at any time by the holder into shares of Class B common stock on a share-for-share basis.

(1)

Includes: (1) 4,660,927 shares of our Class A common stock held by MARRCH Investments, LLC; (2) 236,888 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; (3) 568,897 shares of our Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014; (4) 5,000 shares of Class B common stock held in an Individual Retirement Account for the benefit of Mr. Horowitz; and (5) 500,000 shares of Class A common stock which are pledged as security by MARRCH Investments, LLC in connection with a brokerage investment account agreement. Mr. Horowitz is the managing member of MARRCH Investments, LLC and, as such, may be deemed to exercise voting and investment power over the shares held by all of these entities. Reflects the conversion of 2,441,079 shares of our Class A common stock into 2,441,079 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering.

(2)	Includes: (1) 176,500 shares of our Class A common stock; (2) 292,688 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (3) 566,822 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014.

(3)

Includes: (1) 180,550 shares of restricted stock subject to vesting; and (2) 304,094 shares of Class B common stock subject to options that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of March 18, 2014. Reflects the conversion of 80,000 shares of our Class A common stock into 80,000 shares of our Class B common stock in connection with, and contingent upon the consummation of, this offering.

 

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For information regarding material relationships with the selling stockholders, see the section captioned “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions” in our Definitive Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A for the 2013 annual meeting of stockholders, which is incorporated by reference in the base prospectus.

 

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MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS FOR NON-U.S. HOLDERS

The following is a summary of the material U.S. federal income tax consequences of the ownership and disposition of shares of our Class B common stock to a non-U.S. holder who purchases our Class B common stock in this offering.

For purposes of this discussion, a non-U.S. holder is any beneficial owner of our Class B common stock that for U.S. federal income tax purposes is not a U.S. person (other than a partnership, as discussed below). The term U.S. person means:

 

•

an individual citizen or resident of the United States;

 

•

a corporation or other entity taxable as a corporation created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States or any state thereof or the District of Columbia, or otherwise treated as such for U.S. federal income tax purposes;

 

•

an estate whose income is subject to U.S. federal income tax regardless of its source; or

 

•

a trust (x) whose administration is subject to the primary supervision of a U.S. court and which has one or more U.S. persons who have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (y) which has made a valid election to be treated as a U.S. person.

If a partnership or other pass-through entity holds common stock, the tax treatment of a partner or member in the partnership or other entity will generally depend on the status of the partner or member and upon the activities of the partnership or other entity. Accordingly, we urge partnerships or other pass-through entities which hold shares of our Class B common stock and partners or members in these partnerships or other entities to consult their tax advisors.

This discussion assumes that non-U.S. holders will hold shares of our Class B common stock issued pursuant to the offering as a capital asset (generally, property held for investment). This discussion does not address all aspects of U.S. federal income taxation that may be relevant in light of a non-U.S. holder’s special tax status or special tax situations. Certain U.S. citizens or long-term residents, life insurance companies, tax-exempt organizations, dealers in securities or currency, banks or other financial institutions, pension funds, controlled foreign corporations within the meaning of Section 957 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), passive foreign investment companies within the meaning of Section 1297 of the Code, holders subject to the alternative minimum or net investment income tax provisions of the Code, corporations that accumulate earnings to avoid U.S. federal income tax, and investors that hold shares of Class B common stock as part of a hedge, straddle or conversion transaction are among those categories of potential investors that are subject to special rules not covered in this discussion. This discussion does not address any non-income tax consequences or any income tax consequences arising under the laws of any state, local or non-U.S. taxing jurisdiction. Furthermore, the following discussion is based on current provisions of the Code, Treasury Regulations and administrative and judicial interpretations thereof, all as in effect on the date hereof, and all of which are subject to change, possibly with retroactive effect. Additionally, we have not sought any ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, with respect to statements made and conclusions reached in this discussion, and there can be no assurance that the IRS will agree with these statements and conclusions. We urge each prospective purchaser to consult a tax advisor regarding the U.S. federal, state, local and non-U.S. income and other tax consequences of acquiring, holding and disposing of shares of our Class B common stock.

 

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INVESTORS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR OWN TAX ADVISORS REGARDING THE APPLICATION OF THE U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX LAWS TO THEIR PARTICULAR SITUATIONS AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF U.S. FEDERAL ESTATE OR GIFT TAX LAWS, NON-U.S. LAWS, STATE AND LOCAL LAWS, AND ANY APPLICABLE TAX TREATIES.

Distributions

If we make distributions on our Class B common stock, those payments will constitute dividends for U.S. tax purposes to the extent paid from our current or accumulated earnings and profits, as determined under U.S. federal income tax principles. To the extent those distributions exceed our current and accumulated earnings and profits, the distributions will first constitute a return of capital and will reduce a holder’s basis, but not below zero, and then will be treated as gain from the sale of shares and may be subject to U.S. federal income tax as described below.

Any distribution that is a dividend, as described above, paid to a non-U.S. holder of Class B common stock generally will be subject to U.S. withholding tax either at a rate of 30% of the gross amount of the dividend or such lower rate as may be specified by an applicable income tax treaty. In order to receive a reduced treaty rate, a non-U.S. holder must timely provide us with an IRS Form W-8BEN or other appropriate version of IRS Form W-8 certifying qualification for the reduced rate.

Dividends received by a non-U.S. holder that are effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business conducted by the non-U.S. holder (and dividends attributable to a non-U.S. holder’s permanent establishment in the United States if an income tax treaty applies) are exempt from this withholding tax. In order to obtain this exemption, a non-U.S. holder must provide us with an IRS Form W-8ECI properly certifying this exemption. Dividends that are so effectively connected (and, if required by an applicable income tax treaty, attributable to a permanent establishment), although not subject to withholding tax, are taxed at the same graduated rates applicable to U.S. persons, net of specified deductions and credits. In addition, such dividends received by a corporate non-U.S. holder may also be subject to a branch profits tax at a rate of 30% (or such lower rate as may be specified in an applicable income tax treaty).

A non-U.S. holder of Class B common stock that is eligible for a reduced rate of withholding tax pursuant to an applicable income tax treaty may obtain a refund of any excess amounts withheld if an appropriate claim for refund is timely filed with the IRS.

Gain on Disposition of Shares of Class B common stock

A non-U.S. holder generally will not be subject to United States federal income tax on gain realized upon the sale or other disposition of shares of our Class B common stock unless:

 

•

the gain is effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business of the non-U.S. holder (and attributable to a permanent establishment in the United States if an income tax treaty applies);

 

•

the non-U.S. holder is an individual who is present in the United States for a period or periods aggregating 183 days or more during the taxable year in which the sale or disposition occurs and certain other conditions are met; or

 

•

our Class B common stock constitutes a U.S. real property interest by reason of our status as a “United States real property holding corporation” for U.S federal income tax purposes at any time within the shorter of the five-year period preceding the date of disposition or the holder’s holding period for shares of our Class B common stock. We

 

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believe that we are not currently, and we believe that we will not become, a “United States real property holding corporation” for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If we are or become a “United States real property holding corporation,” so long as our Class B common stock is regularly traded on an established securities market, only a non-U.S. holder who, actually or constructively, holds or held (at any time during the shorter of the five year period preceding the date of disposition or the holder’s holding period) more than 5% of shares of our Class B common stock will be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the disposition of shares of our Class B common stock.

If the recipient is a non-U.S. holder described in the first bullet above, the recipient will be required to pay tax on the net gain derived from the sale under regular graduated U.S. federal income tax rates, and corporate non-U.S. holders described in the first bullet above may be subject to the branch profits tax at a 30% rate or such lower rate as may be specified by an applicable income tax treaty. Non-U.S. holders should consult their tax advisors regarding any applicable income tax treaties that may provide for different rules.

If the recipient is an individual non-U.S. holder described in the second bullet above, the recipient will be required to pay a flat 30% tax on the gain derived from the sale, which gain may be offset by U.S. source capital losses, provided that the non-U.S. holder has timely filed U.S. federal income tax returns with respect to such losses.

Backup Withholding and Information Reporting

Generally, we must report annually to the IRS the amount of dividends paid, the name and address of the recipient, and the amount, if any, of tax withheld. A similar report is sent to the holder. Pursuant to tax treaties or other agreements, the IRS may make its reports available to tax authorities in the recipient’s country of residence.

Payments of dividends or of proceeds on the disposition of shares made to a non-U.S. holder may be subject to information reporting and backup withholding at the then effective backup withholding tax rate unless the non-U.S. holder establishes an exemption, for example, by properly certifying its non-U.S. status on a Form W-8BEN or another appropriate version of Form W-8. Notwithstanding the foregoing, information reporting and backup withholding may apply if either we or our paying agent has actual knowledge, or reason to know, that the holder is a U.S. person.

Backup withholding is not an additional tax. Rather, the U.S. income tax liability of persons subject to backup withholding will be reduced by the amount of tax withheld. If withholding results in an overpayment of taxes, a refund or credit may be obtained, so long as the required information is furnished to the IRS in a timely manner.

Foreign Accounts

Legislation enacted in 2010 generally will impose a U.S. federal withholding tax of 30% on dividends and the gross proceeds of a disposition of our Class B common stock paid to a foreign financial institution (as specifically defined by such law) unless such institution enters into an agreement with the U.S. government to withhold on certain payments and to collect and provide to the U.S. tax authorities substantial information regarding U.S. account holders of such institution (which includes certain equity and debt holders of such institution, as well as certain account holders that are foreign entities with U.S. owners). The legislation also generally will impose a U.S. federal withholding tax of 30% on dividends and the gross proceeds of a disposition of our Class B common stock paid to a non-financial foreign entity unless such entity

 

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provides the withholding agent with either a certification that it does not have any substantial direct or indirect U.S. owners or provides information regarding direct and indirect U.S. owners of the entity. Under certain circumstances, a non-U.S. holder might be eligible for refunds or credits of such taxes. An intergovernmental agreement between the United States and an applicable foreign country may modify the requirements described in this paragraph. Holders are encouraged to consult with their own tax advisors regarding the possible implications of the legislation on their investment in our Class B common stock.

These withholding requirements are expected to be phased-in for payments of dividends made on or after July 1, 2014 and for payments of gross proceeds from a sale or other disposition of our Class B common stock on or after January 1, 2017.

THE PRECEDING DISCUSSION OF U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY. IT IS NOT TAX ADVICE. EACH PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR SHOULD CONSULT ITS OWN TAX ADVISOR REGARDING THE PARTICULAR U.S. FEDERAL, ESTATE OR GIFT TAX LAWS, STATE OR LOCAL AND NON-U.S. TAX CONSEQUENCES OF ACQUIRING, HOLDING, AND DISPOSING OF OUR CLASS B COMMON STOCK, INCLUDING THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANY PROPOSED CHANGE IN APPLICABLE LAWS.

 

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UNDERWRITING

Subject to the terms and conditions of the underwriting agreement, the underwriters named below, through their representative Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., have severally agreed to purchase from us and the selling shareholders the following respective number of shares of Class B common stock at a public offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions set forth on the cover page of this prospectus supplement:

 

Underwriters		Number of Shares
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Piper Jaffray & Co.
BMO Capital Markets Corp.
Stephens Inc.
Total			5,714,000

The underwriting agreement provides that the obligations of the several underwriters to purchase the shares of Class B common stock offered hereby are subject to certain conditions precedent and that the underwriters will purchase all of the shares of Class B common stock offered by this prospectus supplement, other than those covered by the underwriters’ option described below, if any of these shares are purchased.

We have been advised by the representatives of the underwriters that the underwriters propose to offer the shares of Class B common stock to the public at the public offering price set forth on the cover of this prospectus supplement and to dealers at a price that represents a concession not in excess of $             per share under the public offering price. The underwriters may allow, and these dealers may re-allow, a concession of not more than $             per share to other dealers. After the public offering, representatives of the underwriters may change the offering price and other selling terms.

We and the selling stockholders have granted to the underwriters an option, exercisable not later than 30 days after the date of this prospectus supplement, to purchase up to an aggregate of 857,100 additional shares of Class B common stock at the public offering price less the underwriting discounts and commissions set forth on the cover page of this prospectus supplement. The underwriters may exercise this option only to cover over-allotments made in connection with the sale of the common stock offered by this prospectus supplement. To the extent that the underwriters exercise this option, each of the underwriters will become obligated, subject to conditions, to purchase approximately the same percentage of these additional shares of Class B common stock as the number of shares of Class B common stock to be purchased by it in the above table bears to the total number of shares of Class B common stock offered by this prospectus supplement. We and the selling stockholders will be obligated, pursuant to the option, to sell these additional shares of Class B common stock to the underwriters to the extent the option is exercised. If any additional shares of Class B common stock are purchased, the underwriters will offer the additional shares on the same terms as those on which the 857,100 shares are being offered.

 

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The underwriting discounts and commissions per share are equal to the public offering price per share of Class B common stock less the amount paid by the underwriters to us per share of Class B common stock. The underwriting discounts and commissions are       % of the public offering price. We have agreed to pay the underwriters the following discounts and commissions, assuming either no exercise or full exercise by the underwriters of the underwriters’ option:

 

				Total Fees
		Fee per share		Without Exercise of Underwriters’ Option		With Full Exercise of Underwriters’ Option
Discounts and commissions paid by us
Discounts and commissions paid by the selling stockholders

In addition, we estimate that our share of the total expenses of this offering, excluding underwriting discounts and commissions and the SEC registration fee, will be approximately $            .

We and all directors, officers and selling stockholders have agreed that, subject to certain exceptions, without the prior written consent of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. on behalf of the underwriters, we and they will not, during the period ending 90 days, or in the case of the selling stockholders, 180 days, after the date of this prospectus supplement:

 

•

directly or indirectly, offer, sell, pledge, contract to sell (including any short sale), grant any option to purchase or otherwise dispose of any shares of Class B common stock (including, without limitation, shares of Class B common stock which may be deemed to be beneficially owned by such person currently or hereafter in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC, shares of Class B common stock which may be issued upon exercise of a stock option or warrant and any other security convertible into or exchangeable for Class B Common Stock); or

 

•

any short sale (whether or not against the box) or any purchase, sale or grant of any right (including, without limitation, any put or call option) with respect to any security that includes, relates to or derives any significant part of its value from the Common Stock (other than a broad-based market basket or index),

without the prior written consent of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

The restrictions described in the immediately preceding paragraph do not apply to, among other things:

 

•

the sale of shares to the underwriters;

 

•

transfer any or all of the shares of Class B common stock or other of our securities if the transfer does not trigger any filing or reporting requirement or obligation or result in any other voluntary or mandatory public disclosure, including but not limited to Form 4 of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and is by (i) gift, will or intestacy, or (ii) distribution to partners, members or shareholders of such person; provided, however, that the transferee or transferees agree to be bound by the conditions above.

The 90-day or 180-day restricted period, as applicable, described in the preceding paragraph will be automatically extended if: (1) during the last 17 days of the initial 90-day or 180-day period, as applicable (A) we release earnings results or (B) material news or a material event relating to us occurs, or (2) prior to the expiration of the initial 90-day or 180-day period, as applicable, we announce that we will release earnings results during the 16-day period

 

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following the last day of the initial 90-day or 180-day period, as applicable, then in each case the initial 90-day or 180-day period, as applicable, will be extended until the expiration of the 18-day period beginning on the date of the release of the earnings results or the occurrence of material news or a material event relating to us, as the case may be, unless Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. waives, in writing, such extension.

Certain of our directors and executive officers have entered into trading plans intended to comply with the requirements of Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act regarding sales of shares of our Class B common stock. These plans permit the automatic trading of our Class B common stock by an independent person (such as a stockbroker) at the time of the trade and generally provide for sales to occur from time to time as specified under the terms of the plans. Sales made under these plans will not be subject to restriction under the lock-up agreements described above and may occur during the 90-day or 180-day restricted period, as applicable.

We and the selling stockholders have agreed to indemnify the several underwriters against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.

The representatives of the underwriters have advised us that the underwriters do not intend to confirm sales to any account over which they exercise discretionary authority.

In connection with the offering, the underwriters may purchase and sell shares of our Class B common stock in the open market. These transactions may include short sales, purchases to cover positions created by short sales and stabilizing transactions.

Short sales involve the sale by the underwriters of a greater number of shares than they are required to purchase in the offering. Covered short sales are sales made in an amount not greater than the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of Class B common stock from us and the selling stockholders in the offering. The underwriters may close out any covered short position by either exercising their option to purchase additional shares or purchasing shares in the open market. In determining the source of shares to close out the covered short position, the underwriters will consider, among other things, the price of shares available for purchase in the open market as compared to the price at which they may purchase shares through the underwriters’ option.

Naked short sales are any sales in excess of the underwriters’ option. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing shares in the open market. A naked short position is more likely to be created if underwriters are concerned that there may be downward pressure on the price of the shares in the open market prior to the completion of the offering.

Stabilizing transactions consist of various bids for or purchases of our Class B common stock made by the underwriters in the open market prior to the completion of the offering.

The underwriters may impose a penalty bid. This occurs when a particular underwriter repays to the other underwriters a portion of the underwriting discount received by it because the representatives of the underwriters have repurchased shares sold by or for the account of that underwriter in stabilizing or short covering transactions.

Purchases to cover a short position and stabilizing transactions may have the effect of preventing or slowing a decline in the market price of our Class B common stock. Additionally, these purchases, along with the imposition of the penalty bid, may stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the market price of our Class B common stock. As a result, the price of our Class B common stock may be higher than the price that might otherwise exist in the open market. These transactions may be effected on The Nasdaq Global Select Market, in the over-the-counter market or otherwise.

 

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Certain of the underwriters and their affiliates have provided in the past to us and our affiliates and may provide from time to time in the future certain commercial banking, financial advisory, investment banking and other services for us and such affiliates in the ordinary course of their business, for which they have received or will receive customary fees and commissions. In addition, from time to time, certain of the underwriters and their affiliates may effect transactions for their own account or the account of customers, and hold on behalf of themselves or their customers, long or short positions in our debt or equity securities or loans, and may do so in the future.

A prospectus supplement in electronic format is being made available on Internet websites maintained by one or more of the lead underwriters of this offering and may be made available on websites maintained by other underwriters. Other than the prospectus supplement in electronic format, the information on any underwriter’s website and any information contained in any other website maintained by an underwriter is not part of the prospectus supplement or the registration statement of which the prospectus supplement forms a part.

Notice to Investors in the European Economic Area

In relation to each Member State of the European Economic Area which has implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a Relevant Member State) an offer to the public of any shares of common stock which are the subject of this offering contemplated by this prospectus may not be made in that Relevant Member State other than the offers contemplated in the prospectus once the prospectus has been approved by the competent authority in such Member State and published and passported in accordance with the Prospectus Directive as implemented in the Relevant Member State except that an offer to the public in that Relevant Member State of any shares of common stock may be made at any time under the following exemptions under the Prospectus Directive, if they have been implemented in that Relevant Member State:

 

•

to legal entities which are authorized or regulated to operate in the financial markets or, if not so authorized or regulated, whose corporate purpose is solely to invest in securities;

 

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to any legal entity which has two or more of (1) an average of at least 250 employees during the last financial year; (2) a total balance sheet of more than €43,000,000 and (3) an annual net turnover of more than €50,000,000, as shown in its last annual or consolidated accounts;

 

•

by the underwriters to fewer than 100 natural or legal persons (other than qualified investors as defined in the Prospectus Directive) subject to obtaining the prior consent of the underwriters for any such offer; or

 

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in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive,

provided that no such offer of shares of common stock shall result in a requirement for the publication by the Issuer or any underwriter of a prospectus pursuant to Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive.

For the purposes of this provision, the expression an “offer to the public” in relation to any shares of common stock in any Relevant Member State means the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and any shares of common stock to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase any shares of common stock, as the same may be varied in that member state by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive in that member state and the expression “Prospectus Directive” means Directive 2003/71/EC and includes any relevant implementing measure in each Relevant Member State.

 

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Notice to Investors in the United Kingdom

Each underwriter has represented and agreed that (i) it has not offered or sold and, prior to the expiration of the period of six months from the closing date of this offering, will not offer or sell any shares of common stock to persons in the United Kingdom except to persons whose ordinary activities involve them in acquiring, holding, managing or disposing of investments (as principal or agent) for the purposes of their businesses or otherwise in circumstances which have not resulted and will not result in an offer to the public in the United Kingdom within the meaning of the Public Offers of Securities Regulations 1995; (ii) it has complied with and will comply with all applicable provisions of the Financial Services Act 1986 with respect to anything done by it in relation to the shares of our common stock in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom; and (iii) it has only issued or passed on and will only issue or pass on in the United Kingdom, any document received by it in connection with the issue of the shares of our common stock to a person who is of a kind described in Article 11(3) of the Financial Services Act 1986 (Investment Advertisements) (Exemptions) Order 1996 or is a person to whom such document may otherwise lawfully be issued or passed on.

 

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LEGAL MATTERS

The validity of the Class B common stock offered hereby will be passed upon for us by DLA Piper LLP (US), Boston, Massachusetts. Certain legal matters in connection with this offering will be passed upon for the underwriters by Goodwin Procter LLP, Boston, Massachusetts.

EXPERTS

The consolidated financial statements of Marchex, Inc. as of December 31, 2012 and 2013, and for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2013, and management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013 have been incorporated by reference herein and in the registration statement in reliance on the reports of KPMG LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, incorporated by reference herein, and upon the authority of said firm as experts in accounting and auditing.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION

We file annual, quarterly and other reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available to the public over the Internet at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. You may also read and copy any document we file at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the Public Reference Room. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K, including any amendments to those reports, and other information that we file with or furnish to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act can also be accessed free of charge through the Internet. These filings will be available as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.

We have filed with the SEC a registration statement under the Securities Act relating to the offering of these securities. The registration statement, including the attached exhibits, contains additional relevant information about us and the securities. This prospectus does not contain all of the information set forth in the registration statement. You can obtain a copy of the registration statement, at prescribed rates, from the SEC at the address listed above. The registration statement and the documents referred to below under “Information Incorporated by Reference” are also available on our Internet website, www.marchex.com. We have not incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement the information on our website, and you should not consider it to be a part of this prospectus supplement.

 

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INFORMATION INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” into this prospectus supplement certain information. This means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to those documents that contain the information. The information we incorporate by reference is considered a part of this prospectus supplement, and later information we file with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below and any future filings we make with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, on or after the date of this prospectus supplement (other than information “furnished” under Items 2.02 or 7.01 (or corresponding information furnished under Item 9.01 or included as an exhibit) of any Current Report on Form 8-K or otherwise “furnished” to the SEC, unless otherwise stated):

 

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Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, filed with the SEC on March 3, 2013;

 

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Our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on February 19, 2014, February 24, 2014, March 14, 2014 and March 19, 2014; and

 

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The description of our Class B common stock as set forth in our registration statement on Form 8-A, which was filed on March 30, 2004, under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act, including any subsequent amendments or reports filed for the purpose of updating such description.

In accordance with Rule 402 of Regulation S-T, the XBRL related information in Exhibit 101 to our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed under the Securities Act, except as will be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

You may obtain any of the documents incorporated by reference through the SEC or the SEC’s website as described above or on our corporate website at http://www.marchex.com. You may request copies of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at:

Marchex, Inc.

520 Pike Street, Suite 2000

Seattle, Washington 98101

(206) 331-3300

Attention: Ethan A. Caldwell, General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer

 

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PROSPECTUS

MARCHEX, INC.

$50,000,000 of Class B Common Stock Offered by Marchex, Inc.

and

3,500,000 Shares of Class B Common Stock Offered by the Selling Stockholders

 

 

This prospectus is part of a registration statement that we filed with the SEC utilizing a “shelf” registration process, relating to the Class B common stock described in this prospectus. Certain Selling Stockholders referred to in this prospectus and identified in supplements to this prospectus may also offer and sell shares of our Class B common stock under this prospectus. Under this shelf process, we may sell Class B common stock in one or more offerings up to a total initial offering price of $50,000,000. The Selling Stockholders may sell shares of Class B common stock in one or more offerings up to an aggregate of 3,500,000 shares. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of our Class B common stock by the Selling Stockholders. We will bear all expenses of registration incurred in connection with this offering, except any underwriting discounts and commissions and expenses incurred by the Selling Stockholders in disposing of their shares of our Class B common stock.

This prospectus describes some of the general terms that may apply to these securities. Each time we or the Selling Stockholders sell securities pursuant to this prospectus, we or the Selling Stockholders will provide specific terms of the offered securities, including the number of securities offered and the price per security, in one or more prospectus supplements. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus. You should read this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement carefully before you invest in our securities. This prospectus may not be used to consummate a sale of securities unless accompanied by the applicable prospectus supplement.

Our registration of the shares of Class B common stock covered by this prospectus does not mean that we or the Selling Stockholders will offer or sell any of the shares. We and/or the Selling Stockholders may sell the shares of Class B common stock covered by this prospectus in a number of different ways and at varying prices. We provide more information about how we and/or the Selling Stockholders may sell our respective shares in the section entitled “Plan of Distribution.” If any agents or underwriters are involved in the sale of any of these securities, the applicable prospectus supplement will provide the names of the agents or underwriters and any applicable fees, commissions, discounts, or over-allotment options. The price to the public of such securities and any net proceeds we expect to receive from such sale will also be set forth in a prospectus supplement.

Our Class B common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “MCHX.” On December 12, 2013, the last reported sale price of our Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market was $8.32 per share.

This prospectus may not be used to sell securities unless accompanied by a prospectus supplement.

Investing in our Class B common stock involves risks. You should carefully read and consider the risk factors included in our periodic reports, in any prospectus supplements relating to specific offerings of our Class B common stock and in other documents that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. See “Risk Factors.”

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The date of this prospectus is January 9, 2014.

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS			1
PROSPECTUS SUMMARY			3
RISK FACTORS			5
USE OF PROCEEDS			27
SELLING STOCKHOLDERS			27
PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION			28
LEGAL MATTERS			29
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION			29
INFORMATION INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE			30

 

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

This prospectus is part of a registration statement on Form S-3 that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the “Commission” or the “SEC,” using a “shelf” registration process. Specific information about the terms of an offering will be included in a prospectus or a prospectus supplement relating to each offering of shares. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information included in this prospectus. If there is any inconsistency between the information in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement, you should rely on the information in the prospectus supplement. You should read both this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement, together with additional information described below under the caption “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Information Incorporated by Reference.” You should also carefully consider, among other things, the matters discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors.”

We are responsible for the information contained and incorporated by reference in this prospectus, any applicable prospectus supplements and any related free writing prospectus we prepare or authorize. Neither we, the Selling Stockholders nor any underwriter has authorized anyone to provide information different from that contained in this prospectus, any applicable prospectus supplement and the documents incorporated by reference herein.

The information contained in this prospectus, in any prospectus supplement or in any document incorporated by reference is accurate only as of its date, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus, any prospectus supplement or any sale of Class B common stock.

This prospectus is not an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy these shares of Class B common stock in any circumstances under which or jurisdiction in which the offer or solicitation is unlawful.

Unless the context otherwise indicates or requires, the terms “Marchex,” “MCHX,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” as used in this prospectus refer to Marchex, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Unless the context otherwise indicates or requires, the phrase “this prospectus” refers to this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement(s).

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus, any applicable prospectus supplement and the documents incorporated by reference herein contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us.

Additionally, statements concerning future matters and other statements regarding matters that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events, and our future results are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Actual results may vary materially from such expectations. Words such as “may,” “should,” “intends,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” or variations of such words and similar expressions, or the negative of such terms, may help identify such forward-looking statements. Any statements that refer to projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth and trends in our business, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances, are forward-looking. In addition to matters affecting the technology industry or the economy generally, factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations stated in forward-looking statements include, among others, the factors described in “Risk Factors” herein and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, that are incorporated herein by reference. You should

 

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not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this prospectus. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance occurring after the date of this prospectus, currently unknown facts or conditions or the occurrence of unanticipated events.

You should read this prospectus completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by each of these cautionary statements.

 

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

Our Company

We are an advertising technology company that provides products and services for businesses that depend on consumer phone calls to drive sales. Marchex’s mobile advertising platform delivers new customer phone calls to businesses, while our technology analyzes the data in these calls to help maximize results. Through our Archeo division, we enable the buying, selling and development of premium domain names. We also provide performance-based online advertising that connects advertisers with consumers across our owned web sites as well as third party web sites.

Our technology-based products and services facilitate the efficient and cost-effective marketing and selling of goods and services for small and national advertisers who want to market and sell their products through mobile, online and offline; and a proprietary, locally-focused web site network where we help consumers find local information, as well as fulfill our advertiser marketing campaigns. In September 2013, we launched our Domains Marketplace, which provides domain names available for sale and initiated plans to facilitate the buying and transacting of domain names. Our primary products are as follows:

•    Marchex Call Marketplace. Through the Marchex Call Marketplace, we deliver a variety of call advertising products and services to national advertisers, advertising agencies and small advertiser reseller partners. The Marchex Call Marketplace is a performance based, mobile advertising solution that delivers new customers on a Pay for Call basis. Marchex offers exclusive and preferred ad placements across numerous mobile and online media sources, so advertisers can drive qualified calls to their businesses. It leverages our Marchex Call Analytics platform to secure call tracking numbers and to provide qualified calls to advertisers that block spam and other telemarketing calls while working to optimize the return on investment for advertisers’ marketing investment.

•    Call Analytics. Our Call Analytics (technology platform) provides data and insights that measure the performance of mobile, online and offline advertising for advertisers and small business resellers. It includes phone numbers, call tracking, recording, call mining, real-time intelligence and other insights to help advertisers make more informed campaign optimization decisions to drive quality customer calls from their advertising and measure their return on investment across all media channels. Advertisers pay us a fee for each call they receive from call-based ads we distribute through our sources of call distribution or for each phone number tracked based on a pre-negotiated rate.

•    Local Leads. Our Local Leads platform is a white-labeled, full service advertising solution for small business resellers, such as Yellow Pages providers and vertical marketing service providers, to sell call advertising and/or search marketing and other lead products through their existing sales channels to their small business advertisers. These calls and leads are then fulfilled by us across our distribution network, including mobile sources, and leading search engines. By creating a solution for companies who have relationships with small businesses, it is easier for these small businesses to participate in mobile, online, and offline call advertising. The lead services we offer to small business advertisers through our Local Leads platform include products typically available only to national advertisers, including pay-for-call, call tracking, presence management ad creation, keyword selection, geo-targeting, advertising campaign management, reporting, and analytics. The Local Leads platform has the capacity to support hundreds of thousands of advertiser accounts. Reseller partners and publishers generally pay us account fees and agency fees for our products in the form of a percentage of the cost of every click or call delivered to their advertisers.

•    Pay-Per-Click Advertising. We deliver pay-per-click advertisements to online users in response to their keyword search queries or on pages they visit throughout our distribution network of search engines, shopping engines, certain third party vertical and local web sites, mobile distribution and our own proprietary web site traffic sources. In addition to distributing their ads, we offer account management services to help our advertisers

 

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optimize their pay-per-click campaigns, including editorial and keyword selection recommendations and report analysis, as well as presence management services. The pay-per-click advertisements are generally ordered based on the amount our advertisers choose to pay for a placement and the relevancy of their ads to the keyword search. Advertisers pay us when a user clicks on their advertisements in our distribution network and we pay publishers or distribution partners a percentage of the revenue generated by the click-throughs on their site(s). In addition, we generate revenue from cost-per-action events that take place on our distribution network. Cost-per-action revenue occurs when the user is redirected from one of our web sites or a third party web site in our distribution network to an advertiser’s web site and completes a specified action.

•    Archeo Domain Marketplace and Other Revenue. Our premium domain marketplace and performance-based advertising platform help establish and develop brands online. The Archeo Domain Marketplace includes more than 200,000 of our owned and operated websites that are for available for purchase . The more than 200,000 web sites in our network include more than 75,000 U.S. ZIP code sites, including 98102.com and 90210.com, covering ZIP code areas nationwide, as well as tens of thousands of other locally-focused sites such as Yellow.com, OpenList.com and geo-targeted sites. Traffic to our proprietary web sites is primarily monetized with pay-per-click listings that are relevant to the web sites, as well as other forms of advertising, including impression-based advertising. We also generate revenue on domain name sales through our Domains Marketplace which we launched in September 2013 to provide domain names available for sale and initiated plans to facilitate the buying and transacting of domain names.

We were incorporated in Delaware on January 17, 2003. Acquisition initiatives have played an important part in our corporate history to date.

In July 2013, we sold certain assets related to our private-label platform for publishers and pay-per-click contextual advertising services. The private-label platform for publishers enables publishers to monetize their web sites with contextual advertising from their own customers or from our advertising relationships. The pay-per-click contextual advertising services placed advertising on specialized vertical and branded publisher web sites on a pay-per-click basis.

Our principal executive offices are located at 520 Pike Street, Suite 2000, Seattle, WA 98101 and our phone number is (206) 331-3300. Our website address is www.marchex.com. The information on, or accessible through, our website is not a part of this prospectus and shall not be deemed to be incorporated into this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part.

The Offering

We may offer and sell, from time to time, in one or more offerings, up to $50,000,000 of our Class B common stock at prices and on terms to be determined by market conditions at the time of any offering. This prospectus provides you with a general description of the securities we may offer. Each time we offer a type or series of securities under this prospectus, we will provide a prospectus supplement that will describe the specific amounts, prices and other important terms of the offering. See “Plan of Distribution.”

In addition, the Selling Stockholders to be named in a prospectus supplement may offer to sell an aggregate of 3,500,000 shares of our Class B common stock from time to time in the public market under this prospectus. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class B common stock by the Selling Stockholders. See “Selling Stockholders.”

The prospectus supplement also may add, update or change information contained in this prospectus or in documents we have incorporated by reference into any prospectus supplement. However, no prospectus supplement will fundamentally change the terms that are set forth in this prospectus or offer a security that is not registered and described in this prospectus at the time of its effectiveness.

 

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RISK FACTORS

An investment in our common stock involves a significant degree of risk, including the risks described in this prospectus. You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the information under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference, and under similar headings in our subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K, as applicable, as well as the other risks and uncertainties described or incorporated by reference in any prospectus supplement we may authorize and the other information in this prospectus before making an investment in our common stock. If any of the risks described below actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only risks facing our company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or those we currently view to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In such a case, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment. See the sections entitled “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Information Incorporated by Reference” in this prospectus. This prospectus also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including the risks facing our company described below and elsewhere in this prospectus.

Risks Relating to Our Company

We have largely incurred net losses since our inception, and we may incur net losses in the foreseeable future.

We had an accumulated deficit of $171.8 million as of September 30, 2013. Our net expenses may increase based on the initiatives we undertake which for instance, may include increasing our sales and marketing activities, hiring additional personnel, incurring additional costs as a result of being a public company, acquiring additional businesses and making additional equity grants to our employees.

We are dependent on certain distribution partners, for distribution of our services, and we derive a significant portion of our total revenue through these distribution partners. A loss of distribution partners or a decrease in revenue from certain distribution partners could adversely affect our business.

A relatively small number of distribution partners currently deliver a significant percentage of calls and traffic to our advertisers. Our largest distribution partner was paid less than 15% of total revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2013. Our existing agreements with many of our other larger distribution partners permit either company to terminate without penalty on short notice and are primarily structured on a variable-payment basis, under which we make payments based on a specified percentage of revenue or based on the number of paid phone calls or click-throughs. We intend to continue devoting resources in support of our larger distribution partners, but there are no guarantees that these relationships will remain in place over the short-or long-term. In addition, we cannot be assured that any of these distribution partners will continue to generate current levels of revenue for us or that we will be able to maintain the applicable variable payment terms at their current levels. A loss of any of these distribution partners or a decrease in revenue due to lower calls and traffic or less favorable variable payment terms from any one of these distribution relationships could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Companies distributing advertising through mobile or online Internet have experienced, and will likely continue to experience, consolidation. This consolidation has reduced the number of partners that control the mobile and online advertising outlets with the most user calls and traffic. According to the comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace for September 2013, Yahoo! and Microsoft accounted for 11% and 18%, respectively, of the core search market in the United States and Google accounted for 67%. As a result, the larger

 

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distribution partners have greater control over determining the market terms of distribution, including placement of call and click-based advertisements and cost of placement. In addition, many participants in the performance-based advertising and search marketing industries control significant portions of mobile and online traffic that they deliver to advertisers. We do not believe, for example, that Yahoo! and Google are as reliant as we are on a third party distribution network to deliver their services. This gives these companies a significant advantage over us in delivering their services, and with a lesser degree of risk.

We rely on certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies, including YP, hibu, Inc. (formerly Yellowbook Inc.), The Cobalt Group, Super Media, Inc., Yodle and Yellow Media, Inc. for the purchase of various advertising and marketing services, as well as to provide us with a large number of advertisers. A loss of certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies or a decrease in revenue from these reseller partners could adversely affect our business. Such advertisers are subject to varying terms and conditions which may result in claims or credit risks to us.

We benefit from the established relationships and national sales teams that certain of our reseller partners, who are leading reseller partners of advertisers and advertising agencies, have in place throughout the U.S. and international markets. These advertiser reseller partners and agencies refer or bring advertisers to us for the purchase of various advertising products and services. We derive a sizeable portion of our total revenue through these advertiser reseller partners and agencies. A loss of certain advertiser reseller partners and agencies or a decrease in revenue from these clients could adversely affect our business. Through our contract with Yellowpages.com LLC d/b/a AT&T Interactive which is a subsidiary of AT&T (collectively, “AT&T”), our arrangement with AT&T relates to a business unit that is included in YP Holdings, LLC (“YP”) that AT&T sold a majority stake in to a private equity third party in April 2012. YP is our largest reseller partner and was responsible for 25% of our total revenues for the nine months ended September, 30, 2013 of which the majority is derived from our local leads platform. We cannot predict whether our business with YP in the future will continue at or near current levels and any decrease in such levels could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

These advertisers may in certain cases be subject to negotiated terms and conditions separate from those applied to online clients accepted and processed through our automated advertiser management platform. In some cases, the applicable contract terms may be the result of legacy or industry association documentation or simply customized advertising solutions for large reseller partners and agencies. In any case, as a consequence of such varying terms and conditions, we may be subject to claims or credit risks that we may otherwise mitigate more efficiently across our automated advertiser management platform.

These claims and risks may vary depending on the nature of the aggregated client base. Among other claims, we may be subject to disputes based on third party tracking information or analysis. We may also be subject to differing credit profiles and risks based on the agency relationship associated with these advertisers. For such advertisers, payment may be made on an invoice basis, unlike our retail platform which in many instances is paid in advance of the service. In some limited circumstances we may also have accepted individual advertiser payment liability in place of liability of the advertising agency or media advisor.

We received approximately 52% and 61% of our revenue from our five largest customers for the year ended December 31, 2012 and the nine months ended September 30, 2013, respectively, and the loss of one or more of these customers could adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition.

Our five largest customers accounted for approximately 52% and 61% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2012 and the nine months ended September 30, 2013, respectively. YP and ADT are our largest customers and were responsible for 25% and 14% of our total revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2013, respectively, and 32% and 17% of accounts receivable at September 30, 2013, respectively. Certain of these customers are not subject to long term contracts with us and are generally able to reduce advertising spending at any time and for any reason. A significant reduction in advertising spending by our

 

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largest customers, or the loss of one or more of these customers, if not replaced by new customers or an increase in business from existing customers, would adversely affect revenues. This could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our large customers have substantial negotiating leverage, which may require that we agree to terms and conditions that may have an adverse effect on our business.

Our large customers have substantial purchasing power and leverage in negotiating contractual arrangements with us. These customers may seek for us to develop additional features, may require penalties for failure to deliver such features, may seek discounted product or service pricing and may seek more favorable contractual terms. As we sell more products and services to this class of customer, we may be required to agree to such terms and conditions. Such large customers also have substantial leverage in negotiating resolution of any disagreements or disputes that may arise. Any of the foregoing factors could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If some of our customers experience financial distress or suffer disruptions in their business, their weakened financial position could negatively affect our own financial position and results.

We have a diverse customer base and, at any given time, one or more customers may experience financial distress, file for bankruptcy protection, go out of business, or suffer disruptions in their business. If a customer with whom we do a substantial amount of business experiences financial difficulty or suffers disruptions in their business, it could delay or jeopardize the collection of accounts receivable, result in significant reductions in services provided by us and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and liquidity.

We may incur liabilities for the activities of our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and other users of our services, which could adversely affect our business.

Many of our advertisement generation and distribution processes are automated. In some cases, advertisers or reseller partners use our online tools and account management systems to create and submit advertiser listings and in other cases we create and submit advertising listings on behalf of our advertisers or reseller partners. These advertiser listings are submitted in a bulk data feed or through the distribution partners’ user interface. Although we monitor our distribution partners on an ongoing basis primarily for traffic quality, these partners control the distribution of the advertiser listings provided in the data feed or user interface submissions.

We have a large number of distribution partners who display our advertiser listings on their networks. Our advertiser listings are delivered to our distribution partners in an automated fashion through an XML data feed or data dump or through the distribution partners’ user interface. Our distribution partners are contractually required to use the listings created by our advertiser customers in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and in conformity with the publication restrictions in our agreements, which are intended to promote the quality and validity of the traffic provided to our advertisers. Nonetheless, we do not operationally control or manage these distribution partners and any breach of these agreements on the part of any distribution partner or its affiliates could result in liability for our business. These agreements include indemnification obligations on the part of our distribution partners, but there is no guarantee that we would be able to collect against offending distribution partners or their affiliates in the event of a claim under these indemnification provisions. Alternatively, we may incur substantial costs as part of our indemnification obligations to distribution partners for liability they may incur as a result of displaying content we have provided them.

We do not conduct a manual editorial review of a substantial number of the advertiser listings directly submitted by advertisers or reseller partners online, nor do we manually review the display of the vast majority of the advertiser listings by our distribution partners submitted to us by XML data feeds or data dumps or the distribution partners’ user interface. Likewise, in cases where we provide editorial or value-added services for our large reseller partners or agencies, such as ad creation and optimization for local advertisers or landing pages

 

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and micro-sites for pay-for-call customers, we rely on the content and information provided to us by these agents on behalf of their individual advertisers. We do not investigate the individual business activities of these advertisers other than the information provided to us or in some cases review of advertiser web sites. We may not successfully avoid liability for unlawful activities carried out by our advertisers or reseller partners and other users of our services or unpermitted uses of our advertiser listings by distribution partners and their affiliates.

Our potential liability for unlawful activities of our advertisers and other users of our services or unpermitted uses of our advertiser listings and advertising services and platform by distribution partners and reseller partners and agencies could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us, among other things, to spend substantial resources, to discontinue certain service offerings or to terminate certain distribution partner relationships. For example, as a result of the actions of advertisers in our network, we may be subject to private or governmental actions relating to a wide variety of issues, such as privacy, gambling, promotions, and intellectual property ownership and infringement. Under agreements with certain of our larger distribution partners, we may be required to indemnify these distribution partners against liabilities or losses resulting from the content of our advertiser listings, or resulting from third party intellectual property infringement claims. Although our advertisers agree to indemnify us with respect to claims arising from these listings, we may not be able to recover all or any of the liabilities or losses incurred by us as a result of the activities of our advertisers.

Our insurance policies may not provide coverage for liability arising out of activities of users of our services. In addition, our reliance on some content and information provided to us by our large advertiser reseller partners and agencies may expose us to liability not covered by our insurance policies. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain or maintain adequate insurance coverage to reduce or limit the liabilities associated with our businesses. Any costs incurred as a result of such liability or asserted liability could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

If we do not maintain and grow a critical mass of advertisers and distribution partners, the value of our services could be adversely affected.

Our success depends, in large part, on the maintenance and growth of a critical mass of advertisers and distribution partners and a continued interest in our pay-for-call, performance-based advertising, telemarketing analytics and search marketing services. Advertisers will generally seek the most competitive return on investment from advertising and marketing services. Distribution partners will also seek the most favorable payment terms available in the market. Advertisers and distribution partners may change providers or the volume of business with a provider, unless the product and terms are competitive. In this environment, we must compete to acquire and maintain our network of advertisers and distribution partners. If our business is unable to maintain and grow our base of advertisers, our current distribution partners may be discouraged from continuing to work with us, and this may create obstacles for us to enter into agreements with new distribution partners. Our business also in part depends on certain of our large reseller partners and agencies to grow their base of advertisers as these advertisers become increasingly important to our business and our ability to attract additional distribution partners and opportunities. Similarly, if our distribution network does not grow and does not continue to improve over time, current and prospective advertisers and reseller partners and agencies may reduce or terminate this portion of their business with us. Any decline in the number of advertisers and distribution partners could adversely affect the value of our services.

The mobile advertising market may develop more slowly than expected, which could harm our business.

If the market for mobile marketing and advertising develops more slowly than we expect, our business could suffer. Our future success is highly dependent on the commitment of advertisers and marketers to mobile communications as an advertising and marketing medium, the willingness of our potential advertisers to outsource their mobile advertising and marketing needs, and our ability to sell our mobile advertising services to reseller partners and agencies. The mobile advertising and marketing market is relatively new and rapidly

 

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evolving. Businesses, including current and potential advertisers, may find mobile advertising or marketing to be less effective than traditional advertising media or marketing methods or other technologies for promoting their products and services. As a result, the future demand and market acceptance for mobile marketing and advertising is uncertain. Many of our current or potential advertisers have little or no experience using mobile communications for advertising or marketing purposes and have allocated only a limited portion of their advertising or marketing budgets to mobile communications advertising or marketing, and there is no certainty that they will allocate more funds in the future, if any.

We are dependent upon the quality of mobile, online, offline and other traffic sources in our network to provide value to our advertisers and the advertisers of our reseller partners, and any failure in our quality control could have a material adverse effect on the value of our services to our advertisers and adversely affect our revenues.

We utilize certain monitoring processes with respect to the quality of the mobile, online, offline and other traffic sources that we deliver to our advertisers. Among the factors we seek to monitor are sources and causes of low quality phone calls such as unwanted telemarketer calls and clicks such as non-human processes, including robots, spiders or other software, the mechanical automation of clicking, and other types of invalid clicks, click fraud, or click spam, the purpose of which is something other than to view the underlying content. Additionally, we also seek to identify other indicators which may suggest that a user may not be targeted by or desirable to our advertisers. Even with such monitoring in place, there is a risk that a certain amount of low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic or traffic that is deemed to be less valuable by our advertisers will be delivered to such advertisers, which may be detrimental to those relationships. We have regularly refunded fees that our advertisers had paid to us which were attributed to low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic. If we are unable to stop or reduce low quality Internet traffic and low quality phone calls, these refunds may increase. Low quality mobile, online, offline and other traffic may further prevent us from growing our base of advertisers and cause us to lose relationships with existing advertisers, or become the target of litigation, both of which would adversely affect our revenues.

We depend on being able to secure enough phone numbers to support our advertisers and other users of our services and any obstacles that we face which prevent us from meeting this demand could adversely affect our business.

We utilize phone numbers as part of a number of information and analytic services to advertisers, such as our pay-for-call, call tracking and call analytics services. Our services that utilize phone numbers are designed to enable advertisers and other users of our services to utilize mobile, online and offline advertising and to help measure the effectiveness of mobile, online and offline advertising campaigns. We secure a majority of our phone numbers through telecommunication carriers that we have contracted with and a smaller number through the 800 Service Management System, and such telecommunication carriers provide the underlying telephone service. Our telecommunications carriers and telephone number acquisition process are subject to the rules and guidelines established by the Federal Communications Commission. Furthermore, to the extent we offer call recording and pay-for-call services, we may be directly subject to certain telecommunications-related regulations. The Federal Communications Commission and our telecommunication carriers may change the rules and guidelines for securing phone numbers or change the requirements for retaining the phone numbers we have already secured. As a result, we may not be able to secure or retain sufficient phone numbers needed for our services. We may also be limited in the number of available telecommunications carriers or vendors to provide such phone numbers to us in the event of any industry consolidations.

Our acquisition of certain automated voice and mobile advertising-based technologies is heavily reliant on vendors.

Certain voice and mobile advertising-based products that we acquired as part of our acquisition of Jingle are heavily reliant on vendors. The free directory product that we provide relies on technology provided by third

 

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party vendors that include voice recognition software and business, government and residence data listings. We cannot guarantee that the technology, data and services provided by our third party vendors will be of sufficient quality to meet the demands of our customers and partners. Further, we cannot guarantee that the technologies, data and services will be available to us in the future on acceptable terms, if at all. Any perception by our customers or partners that our voice and mobile advertising-based products are incomplete or not of sufficient quality could lead to a loss in confidence by our customers or partners, which in turn could lead to a decline in revenues. If we are unable to continue maintaining, advancing and improving our voice and mobile advertising-based products, our operating results may be adversely affected.

We may be subject to intellectual property claims, which could adversely affect our financial condition and ability to use certain critical technologies, divert our resources and management attention from our business operations and create uncertainty about ownership of technology essential to our business.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to operate without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others. There can be no guarantee that any of our intellectual property will not be challenged by third parties. We may be subject to patent infringement claims or other intellectual property infringement claims, including claims of trademark infringement in connection with our acquisition of previously-owned Internet domain names and claims of copyright infringement with respect to certain of our proprietary web sites that would be costly to defend and could limit our ability to use certain critical technologies.

The expansion of our call advertising business increases the potential intellectual property infringement claims we may be subject to, particularly in light of the large number of patents which have been issued (or are pending) in the telecommunications field over the last several decades, both in the U.S. and internationally. Jingle, which we acquired in 2011, was subject to patent infringement claims which were unsuccessful at trial. We resolved this matter and obtained a license to the patents at issue.

We believe that a consolidation of patent portfolios by major technology companies and independent asset holding companies may increase the chances of aggressive assertions of patent and other intellectual property claims. Within the technology and online sectors, among other related sectors, we have witnessed various claim holders and alleged rights holders pursue business strategies devoted to extracting settlements or license fees for a wide range of basic and commonly accepted methods and practices. We may be subject to those intellectual property claims in the ordinary course of our business. Also, our partners and customers may also find that they are subject to similar claims, in which case we may be included in any related process or dispute settlement.

Any patent or other intellectual property litigation could negatively impact our business by diverting resources and management attention from other aspects of the business and adding uncertainty as to the ownership of technology, services and property that we view as proprietary and essential to our business. In addition, a successful claim of patent infringement against us and our failure or inability to license the infringed or similar technology on reasonable terms, or at all, could prevent us from using critical technologies which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may need additional funding to meet our obligations and to pursue our business strategy. Additional funding may not be available to us and our financial condition could therefore be adversely affected.

We may require additional funding to meet our ongoing obligations and to pursue our business strategy, which may include the selective acquisition of businesses and technologies. In addition, we have incurred and we may incur certain obligations in the future. There can be no assurance that if we were to need additional funds to meet these obligations that additional financing arrangements would be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Furthermore, if adequate additional funds are not available, we will be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate material parts of the implementation of our business strategy, including potential additional acquisitions or internally-developed businesses.

 

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Our acquisitions could divert management’s attention, cause ownership dilution to our stockholders, cause our earnings to decrease and be difficult to integrate.

Our business strategy includes identifying, structuring, completing and integrating acquisitions. Acquisitions in the technology and Internet sectors involve a high degree of risk. We may also be unable to find a sufficient number of attractive opportunities to meet our objectives which include revenue growth, profitability and competitive market share. Our acquired companies may have histories of net losses and may expect net losses for the foreseeable future. Acquisitions are accompanied by a number of risks that could harm our business, operating results and financial condition:

 

•

We could experience a substantial strain on our resources, including time and money, and we may not be successful;

 

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Our management’s attention could be diverted from our ongoing business concerns;

 

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While integrating new companies, we may lose key executives or other employees of these companies;

 

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We may issue shares of our Class B common stock as consideration for acquisitions which may result in ownership dilution to our stockholders;

 

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We could fail to successfully integrate our financial and management controls, technology, reporting systems and procedures, or adequately expand, train and manage our workforce;

 

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We could experience customer dissatisfaction or performance problems with an acquired company or technology;

 

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We could become subject to unknown or underestimated liabilities of an acquired entity or incur unexpected expenses or losses from such acquisitions;

 

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We could incur possible impairment charges related to goodwill or other intangible assets or other unanticipated events or circumstances, any of which could harm our business; and

 

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We may be exposed to investigations and/or audits by federal, state or other taxing authorities.

Consequently, we might not be successful in integrating any acquired businesses, products or technologies, and might not achieve anticipated revenue and cost benefits.

Our expanding international operations subject us to additional risks and uncertainties and we may not be successful with our strategy to continue to expand such operations.

One potential area of growth for us is in international markets. We have initiated operations, through our subsidiaries, in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Our international expansion and the integration of international operations present unique challenges and risks. Compliance with complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations increases our cost of doing business in international jurisdictions and could interfere with our ability to offer our products and services to one or more countries or expose us or our employees to fines and penalties. Our continued international expansion also subjects us to increased foreign currency exchange rate risks and will require additional management attention and resources. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in our international expansion. There are risks inherent in conducting business in international markets, including the need to localize our products and services to foreign customers’ preferences and customs, difficulties in managing operations due to language barriers, distance, staffing and cultural differences, application of foreign laws and regulations to us, tariffs and other trade barriers, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, establishing management systems and infrastructures, reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries, changes in foreign political and economic conditions, and potentially adverse tax consequences. Our failure to address these risks adequately could materially and adversely affect our business, revenue, results of operations and financial condition.

 

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The loss of our senior management, including our executive officer founders, could harm our current and future operations and prospects.

We are heavily dependent upon the continued services of Russell C. Horowitz, our chairman and chief executive officer, and the other members of our senior management team. Each member of our senior management team is an at-will employee and may voluntarily terminate his employment with us at any time with minimal notice. Following any termination of employment, each of these employees would only be subject to a twelve-month non-competition and non-solicitation obligation with respect to our customers and employees under our standard confidentiality agreement.

Further, as of September 30, 2013, Russell C. Horowitz, Ethan A. Caldwell and Peter Christothoulou, our executive officer founders, together controlled 87% of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Their collective voting control is not tied to their continued employment with Marchex. The loss of the services of any member of our senior management, including our executive officer founders, for any reason, or any conflict among our executive officer founders, could harm our current and future operations and prospects.

We may have difficulty retaining current personnel as well as attracting and retaining additional qualified, experienced, highly skilled personnel, which could adversely affect the implementation of our business plan.

Our performance is largely dependent upon the talents and efforts of highly skilled individuals. In order to fully implement our business plan, we will need to retain our current qualified personnel, as well as attract and retain additional qualified personnel. Thus, our success will in significant part depend upon our retention of current personnel as well as the efforts of personnel not yet identified and upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering, sales and marketing personnel. We are also dependent on managerial and technical personnel to the extent they may have knowledge or information about our businesses and technical systems that may not be known by our other personnel. There can be no assurance that we will be able to attract and retain necessary personnel. The failure to hire and retain such personnel could adversely affect the implementation of our business plan.

If we are unable to obtain and maintain adequate insurance, our financial condition could be adversely affected in the event of uninsured or inadequately insured loss or damage. Our ability to effectively recruit and retain qualified officers and directors may also be adversely affected if we experience difficulty in maintaining adequate directors’ and officers’ liability insurance.

We may not be able to obtain and maintain insurance policies on terms affordable to us that would adequately insure our business and property against damage, loss or claims by third parties. To the extent our business or property suffers any damages, losses or claims by third parties that are not covered or adequately covered by insurance, our financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

We currently have directors’ and officers’ liability insurance. If we are unable to maintain sufficient insurance as a public company to cover liability claims made against our officers and directors, we may not be able to retain or recruit qualified officers and directors to manage our company, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

It may be difficult for us to retain or attract qualified officers and directors, which could adversely affect our business and our ability to maintain the listing of our Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

We may be unable to attract and retain qualified officers, directors and members of board committees required to provide for our effective management as a result of changes in the rules and regulations which govern publicly-held companies, including, but not limited to, certifications from executive officers and requirements for

 

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financial experts on boards of directors. The perceived increased personal risk associated with these changes may deter qualified individuals from accepting these roles. Further, applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASDAQ Stock Market heighten the requirements for board or committee membership, particularly with respect to an individual’s independence from the corporation and level of experience in finance and accounting matters. We may have difficulty attracting and retaining directors with the requisite qualifications. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified officers and directors, our business and our ability to maintain the listing of our shares of Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market could be adversely affected.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud, which could harm our brand and operating results.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable and accurate financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. We have devoted significant resources and time to comply with the internal control over financial reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In addition, Section 404 under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires that we assess and our auditors attest to the effectiveness of our controls over financial reporting. Our current and future compliance with the annual internal control report requirement will depend on the effectiveness of our financial reporting and data systems and controls across our operating subsidiaries. We expect these systems and controls to become increasingly complex to the extent that we integrate acquisitions and our business grows. To effectively manage this growth, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we design, implement and maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation or operation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations. Inadequate internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock and our access to capital.

Impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets would result in a decrease in earnings.

Current accounting rules require that goodwill and other intangible assets with indefinite useful lives be tested for impairment at least annually. These rules also require that intangible assets with definite useful lives be amortized over their respective estimated useful lives to their estimated residual values, and reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Events and circumstances considered in determining whether the carrying value of amortizable intangible assets and goodwill may not be recoverable include, but are not limited to, significant changes in performance relative to expected operating results, significant changes in the use of the assets, significant negative industry or economic trends, or a significant decline in our stock price and/or market capitalization for a sustained period of time. To the extent such evaluation indicates that the useful lives of intangible assets are different than originally estimated, the amortization period is reduced or extended and, accordingly, the quarterly amortization expense is increased or decreased. To the extent such evaluation indicates that the useful lives of intangible assets are different than originally estimated, the amortization period is reduced or extended and, accordingly, amortization expense is increased or decreased.

We recorded a substantial non-cash impairment charge for goodwill and intangible assets during the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of the impact of the adverse economic environment including the deterioration in the equity and credit markets. During the fourth quarter of 2012, we recorded a non-cash impairment charge for goodwill of $16.7 million within the Archeo reporting unit as a result of lower projected revenue growth rates and profitability levels compared to historical results and other market-based factors. We may be required to record a future charge to earnings in our financial statements during the period in which any additional impairment of our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets is determined. Any impairment charges or changes to the estimated amortization periods could have a material adverse effect on our financial results.

 

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We may be required to increase or decrease the valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets.

Factors in our ability to realize a tax benefit from our deferred tax assets include tax attributes and operating results of acquired businesses, the nature, extent and periods that temporary differences are expected to reverse and our expectations about future operating results. We regularly review our deferred tax assets to assess whether or not it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will be realized, and if necessary, increase or decrease the valuation allowance for portions of such assets to reduce the carrying value. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, we recognized a partial valuation allowance of $16.4 million on our federal deferred tax assets which reduced our net deferred assets to $28.5 million. At the end of the second quarter of 2013, our gross deferred tax assets increased by approximately $651,000 due primarily to the 2012 and 2013 research and development credit which was reinstated as part the 2012 American Taxpayer Relief Act signed into law in January 2013. This increase was offset by a corresponding increase in our valuation allowance. If we determine that our deferred tax assets will not result in a future tax benefit, an additional valuation allowance may be recorded with a corresponding charge to net income. Such charges may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. The likelihood of recording such a valuation allowance may be impacted by our acquisitions and increases during periods of economic downturn.

We may not be able to realize the intended and anticipated benefits from our acquisitions of Internet domain names in part due to our increasing business focus on call advertising products, which could affect the value of these acquisitions to our business and our ability to meet our financial obligations and targets.

We may not be able to realize the intended and anticipated benefits from our acquisitions of Internet domain names in part due to our increasing focus on call advertising products. These intended and anticipated benefits included increasing our cash flow from operations, broadening our distribution offerings and delivering services that strengthen our advertiser relationships.

If the acquired assets are not integrated into our business as we had anticipated, we may not be able to achieve these benefits or realize the value paid for our acquisitions of Internet domain names, which could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our ability to maintain and grow revenues will also depend on maintaining and growing the number of domain name sales and the average revenue per domain. If we are unable to attract prospective buyers to purchase domains and at the price we value the domains, our revenue and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We do not control the means by which users access our web sites, and material changes to current navigation practices or technologies or marketing practices or significant increases in our marketing costs could result in a material adverse effect on our business.

The success of our proprietary web site traffic sources depends in large part upon consumer access to our web sites. Consumers access our web sites primarily through the following methods: directly accessing our web sites by typing descriptive keywords or keyword strings into the uniform resource locator (URL) address box of an Internet browser; accessing our web sites by clicking on bookmarked web sites; and accessing our web sites through search engines and directories.

Each of these methods requires the use of a third party product or service, such as an Internet browser or search engine application or directory. Internet browsers may provide alternatives to the URL address box to locate web sites, and search engines may from time to time change and establish rules regarding the indexing and optimization of web sites. We also market certain web sites through search engine applications. Historically, we have limited our search engine marketing to less than five leading search engines.

Product developments and market practices for these means of access to our web sites are not within our control. We may experience a decline in traffic to our web sites if third party browser technologies or search engine methodologies and rules are changed to our disadvantage. We have experienced abrupt search engine

 

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algorithm and policy changes in the past. We expect the search engine applications we utilize to market and drive users to our web sites to continue to periodically change their algorithms, policies and technologies. These changes may result in an interruption in user’s ability to access our web sites or impair our ability to maintain and grow the number of users who visit our web sites. We may also be forced to significantly increase marketing expenditures in the event that market prices for online advertising and paid-listings escalate. Any of these changes could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may experience unforeseen liabilities in connection with our acquisitions of Internet domain names or arising out of third party domain names included in our distribution network, which could negatively impact our financial results.

Certain of our acquisitions involved the acquisition of a large number of previously-owned Internet domain names. Furthermore, we have separately acquired and may acquire in the future additional previously-owned Internet domain names. In some cases, these acquired names may have trademark significance that is not readily apparent to us or is not identified by us in the bulk purchasing process. As a result we may face demands by third party trademark owners asserting infringement or dilution of their rights and seeking transfer of acquired Internet domain names under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy administered by ICANN or actions under the U.S. Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Additionally, we display pay-for-call or pay-per-click listings on third party domain names and third party web sites that are part of our distribution network, which also could subject us to a wide variety of civil claims including intellectual property ownership and infringement.

We intend to review each claim or demand which may arise from time to time on its merits on a case-by-case basis with the assistance of counsel and we intend to transfer any rights acquired by us to any party that has demonstrated a valid prior right or claim. We cannot, however, guarantee that we will be able to resolve these disputes without litigation. The potential violation of third party intellectual property rights and potential causes of action under consumer protection laws may subject us to unforeseen liabilities including injunctions and judgments for money damages.

With the recent suspension of our previously announced spin off transaction, we may continue to explore various strategic alternatives for our Archeo assets.

In November 2012, we announced our intention to pursue the spin off of our Archeo assets and in September 2013 following a strategic review, we announced the suspension of the planned spin-off of the Archeo assets in its previously announced form. At such time we announced our intention to explore various strategic alternatives for the Archeo assets. Archeo continues to operate as an independent division of the Company. We can not predict whether Archeo will continue as such within our organization or whether we will pursue another strategic alternative for the Archeo assets going forward. If we do pursue another strategic alternative for the Archeo assets, there can be no assurances such efforts will be successful.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Our Industry

If we are unable to compete in the highly competitive performance-based advertising and search marketing industries, we may experience reduced demand for our products and services.

We operate in a highly competitive and changing environment. We principally compete with other companies which offer services in the following areas:

 

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sales to advertisers of pay-for-call services;

 

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sales to advertisers of pay-per-click services;

 

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aggregation or optimization of online advertising for distribution through mobile and online search engines and applications, product shopping engines, directories, web sites or other offline outlets;

 

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•

provision of local and vertical web sites containing information and user feedback designed to attract users and help consumers make better, more informed local decisions, while providing targeted advertising inventory for advertisers;

 

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delivery of pay-for-call advertising to end users or customers of advertisers through mobile and online destination web sites or other offline distribution outlets;

 

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delivery of online advertising to end users or customers of advertisers through mobile and online destination web sites or other offline distribution outlets;

 

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local search sales training;

 

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services and outsourcing of technologies that allow advertisers to manage their advertising campaigns across multiple networks and track the success of these campaigns;

 

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third party domain monetization;

 

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sales to advertisers of call tracking, call analytics, and presence management services; and

 

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sales to third parties of domain names.

Although we currently pursue a strategy that allows us to potentially partner with all relevant companies in the industry, there are certain companies in the industry that may not wish to partner with us. Despite the fact that we currently work with several of our potential competitors, there are no guarantees that these companies will continue to work with us in the future.

We currently or potentially compete with a variety of companies, including Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Microsoft, Yahoo! and ReachLocal. Many of these actual or perceived competitors also currently or may in the future have business relationships with us, particularly in distribution. However, such companies may terminate their relationships with us. Furthermore, our competitors may be able to secure agreements with us on more favorable terms, which could reduce the usage of our services, increase the amount payable to our distribution partners, reduce total revenue and thereby have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We expect competition to intensify in the future because current and new competitors can enter our market with little difficulty. The barriers to entering our market are relatively low. In fact, many current Internet and media companies presently have the technical capabilities and advertiser bases to enter the search marketing services industry. Further, if the consolidation trend continues among the larger media and search engine companies with greater brand recognition, the share of the market remaining for smaller search marketing services providers could decrease, even though the number of smaller providers could continue to increase. These factors could adversely affect our competitive position.

Some of our competitors, as well as potential entrants into our market, may be better positioned to succeed in this market. They may have:

 

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longer operating histories;

 

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more management experience;

 

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an employee base with more extensive experience;

 

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better geographic coverage;

 

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larger customer bases;

 

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greater brand recognition; and

 

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significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources.

Currently, and in the future, as the use of the Internet and other mobile and online services increases, there will likely be larger, more well-established and well-financed entities that acquire companies and/or invest in or form joint ventures in categories or countries of interest to us, all of which could adversely impact our business. Any of these trends could increase competition and reduce the demand for any of our services.

 

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We face competition from traditional media companies, and we may not be included in the advertising budgets of large advertisers, which could harm our operating results.

In addition to Internet companies, we face competition from companies that offer traditional media advertising opportunities. Most large advertisers have set advertising budgets, a very small portion of which is allocated to Internet advertising. We expect that large advertisers will continue to focus most of their advertising efforts on traditional media. If we fail to convince these companies to spend a portion of their advertising budgets with us, or if our existing advertisers reduce the amount they spend on our programs, our operating results would be harmed.

If we are not able to respond to the rapid technological change characteristic of our industry, our products and services may cease to be competitive.

The market for our products and services is characterized by rapid change in business models and technological infrastructure, and we will need to constantly adapt to changing markets and technologies to provide new and competitive products and services. If we are unable to ensure that our users, advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners have a high-quality experience with our products and services, then they may become dissatisfied and move to competitors’ products and services. Accordingly, our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to develop and offer competitive products and services for both our target market and for applications in new markets. We may not, however, be able to successfully do so, and our competitors may develop innovations that render our products and services obsolete or uncompetitive.

Our technical systems are vulnerable to interruption and damage that may be costly and time-consuming to resolve and may harm our business and reputation.

A disaster could interrupt our services for an indeterminate length of time and severely damage our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from:

 

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fire;

 

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floods;

 

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network failure;

 

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hardware failure;

 

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software failure;

 

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power loss;

 

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telecommunications failures;

 

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break-ins;

 

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terrorism, war or sabotage;

 

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computer viruses;

 

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denial of service attacks;

 

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penetration of our network by unauthorized computer users and “hackers” and other similar events;

 

•

natural disasters, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes; and

 

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other unanticipated problems.

We may not have developed or implemented adequate protections or safeguards to overcome any of these events. We also may not have anticipated or addressed many of the potential events that could threaten or undermine our technology network. Any of these occurrences could cause material interruptions or delays in our

 

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business, result in the loss of data or render us unable to provide services to our customers. In addition, if a person is able to circumvent our security measures, he or she could destroy or misappropriate valuable information, including sensitive customer information, or disrupt our operations. We have deployed firewall hardware intended to thwart hacker attacks. Although we maintain property insurance and business interruption insurance, our insurance may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses that may occur as a result of a catastrophic system failure or other loss, and our insurers may not be able or may decline to do so for a variety of reasons. If we fail to address these issues in a timely manner, we may lose the confidence of our advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners, our revenue may decline and our business could suffer. In addition, as we expand our service offerings and enter into new business areas, we may be required to significantly modify and expand our software and technology platform. If we fail to accomplish these tasks in a timely manner, our business and reputation will likely suffer. Furthermore, some of these events could disrupt the economy and/or our customers’ business activities and in turn materially affect our operating results.

We rely on third party technology, platforms, carriers, communications providers, and server and hardware providers, and a failure of service by these providers could adversely affect our business and reputation.

We rely upon third party colocation providers to host our main servers. If these providers are unable to handle current or higher volumes of use, experience any interruption in operations or cease operations for any reason or if we are unable to agree on satisfactory terms for continued hosting relationships, we would be forced to enter into a relationship with other service providers or assume hosting responsibilities ourselves. If we are forced to switch hosting facilities, we may not be successful in finding an alternative service provider on acceptable terms or in hosting the computer servers ourselves. We may also be limited in our remedies against these providers in the event of a failure of service. In the past, we have experienced short-term outages in the service maintained by one of our colocation providers.

We also rely on a select group of third party providers for components of our technology platform and support for our advertising and call-based services, such as hardware and software providers, telecommunications carriers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, credit card processors and domain name registrars. As a result, key operational resources of our business are concentrated with a limited number of third party providers. A failure or limitation of service or available capacity by any of these third party providers could adversely affect our business and reputation. Furthermore, if any of these significant providers are unable to provide the levels of service and dedicated resources over time that we required in our business, we may not be able to replace certain of these providers in a manner that is efficient, cost-effective or satisfactory to our customers, and as a result our business could be materially and adversely affected.

If our security measures are breached or are perceived as not being secure, we may lose advertisers, reseller partners and distribution partners and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure.

We store and transmit data and information about our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and their respective users. We deploy security measures to protect this data and information, as do third parties we utilize to assist in data and information storage. Our security measures and those of the third parties we partner with to assist in data and information storage may suffer breaches. Security breaches of our data storage systems or our third party colocation and technology providers we utilize to store data and information relating to our advertisers, reseller partners, distribution partners and their respective users could expose us to significant potential liability. In addition, security breaches, actual or perceived, could result in the loss of advertisers, reseller partners and distribution partners that could potentially have an adverse effect on our business.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights, which could result in our competitors marketing competing products and services utilizing our intellectual property and could adversely affect our competitive position.

Our success and ability to compete effectively are substantially dependent upon our internally developed and acquired technology and data resources, which we protect through a combination of copyright, trade secret,

 

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and patent and trademark law. To date, we have had issued or have applications pending for the following patents:

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,668,950 entitled “Automatically Updating Performance-Based Online Advertising System and Method” was issued February 23, 2010.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,442,862 entitled “Method and System for Tracking Telephone Calls” was issued on May 14, 2013 and a corresponding divisional Patent Application Number 13/294,436 was filed November 11, 2011.

 

•

U.S. Patent Number 6,822,663 entitled “Transform Rule Generator for Web-Based Markup Languages” was issued November 23, 2004.

 

•

U.S. Patent Application Number 12/512,821 entitled “Facility for Reconciliation of Business Records Using Genetic Algorithms” was filed on July 30, 2009.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,433,0482 entitled “System and Method to Direct Telephone Calls to Advertisers” was issued April 30, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 12/829,373 entitled “System and Method for Calling Advertised Telephone Numbers on a Computing Device” was filed July 1, 2010.

 

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U.S Patent Number 8,259,915 entitled “System and Method to Analyze Calls to Advertised Telephone Numbers” was issued September 4, 2012 and its continuation Patent Application Number 13/603,283 was filed September 4, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/176,709 entitled “Method and System for Automatically Generating Advertising Creatives” was filed July 5, 2011.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 12/844,488 entitled “Systems and Methods for Blocking Telephone Calls” was filed on July 27, 2010,

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,212,615 entitled “Criteria Based Marketing For Telephone Directory Assistance” was issued May 1, 2007 and owned by Jingle Networks, which we acquired in 2011.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,702,084 entitled “Toll-Free Directory Assistance With Preferred Advertisement Listing” was issued April 20, 2010.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 7,961,861 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Response Location Advertising” was issued June 14, 2011 and corresponding European Application Number 5826299.99 was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 11/290,148 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Advertising Based On Past History Of Requests” was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 11/291,094 entitled “Telephone Search Supported By Keyword Map To Advertising” was filed November 29, 2005.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,175,231 entitled “Toll-Free Directory Assistance With Automatic Selection Of An Advertisement From A Category” issued May 8, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Number 8,107,602 entitled “Directory Assistance With Data Processing Station” was issued January 31, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/677,248 entitled “System and Method to Customize a Connection Interface for Multimodal Connection to a Telephone Number” was filed November 14, 2012.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13,756,380 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing an Automated Filtering Function” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/756,441 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing a Pooling Algorithm” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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•

U.S. Patent Application Number 13/756,480 entitled “Call Tracking System Utilizing a Sampling Algorithm” was filed January 31, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/865,966 entitled “Correlated Consumer Telephone Numbers and User Identifiers for Advertising Retargeting was filed April 18, 2013, claiming priority to U.S. Patent Application Number 61/801,893 entitled “Cross-Channel Targeting Using Historical Online and Call Data” filed March 15, 2013.

 

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U.S. Patent Application Number 13/842,769 entitled “System and Method for Analyzing and Classifying Calls without Transcription” was filed March 15, 2013.

In the future, additional patents may be filed with respect to internally developed or acquired technologies. Our industry is highly competitive and many individuals and companies have sought to patent processes in the industry. We may decide not to protect certain intellectual properties or business methods which may later turn out to be significant to us. In addition, the patent process takes several years and involves considerable expense. Further, patent applications and patent positions in our industry are highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions due in part to the number of competing technologies. As a result, we may not be able to successfully prosecute these patents, in whole or in part, or any additional patent filings that we may make in the future. We also depend on our trademarks, trade names and domain names. We may not be able to adequately protect our technology and data resources. In addition, intellectual property laws vary from country to country, and it may be more difficult to protect our intellectual property in some foreign jurisdictions in which we may plan to enter. If we fail to obtain and maintain patent or other intellectual property protection for our technology, our competitors could market competing products and services utilizing our technology.

Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties domestically and internationally may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our services, technology and other intellectual property. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent any misappropriation or confusion among consumers and advertisers. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use, our competitive position could be adversely affected.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, which could be expensive and time consuming.

We may initiate patent litigation against third parties to protect or enforce our patent rights, and we may be sued by others seeking to invalidate our patents or prevent the issuance of future patents. We may also become subject to interference proceedings conducted in the patent and trademark offices of various countries to determine the priority of inventions. The defense and prosecution, if necessary, of intellectual property suits, interference proceedings and related legal and administrative proceedings is costly and may divert our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. We may not prevail in any of these suits. An adverse determination of any litigation or defense proceedings could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not being issued.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, during the course of this kind of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments in the litigation. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the trading price of our Class B common stock.

Our quarterly results of operations might fluctuate due to seasonality, which could adversely affect our growth rate and in turn the market price of our securities.

Our quarterly results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future due to seasonal fluctuations in the level of mobile and Internet usage and seasonal purchasing cycles of many advertisers. Our experience has shown that during the spring and summer months of the year, mobile and Internet usage is lower than during

 

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other times of the year and during the latter part of the fourth quarter of the calendar year we generally experience lower call volume and reduced demand for calls from our mobile call advertising customers. The extent to which usage and call volume may decrease during these off-peak periods is difficult to predict. Prolonged or severe decreases in usage and call volume during these periods may adversely affect our growth rate and in turn the market price of our securities. Additionally, the current business environment has resulted in many advertisers and reseller partners reducing advertising and marketing services budgets or changing such budgets throughout the year, which may impact our quarterly results of operations in addition to typical seasonality seen in our industry. Our quarterly results will also be impacted by the timing of domain name sales which were recognized as revenue starting in September 2013 with the launch of our Domains Marketplace.

We are susceptible to general economic conditions, and a downturn in advertising and marketing spending by advertisers could adversely affect our operating results.

Our operating results will be subject to fluctuations based on general economic conditions, in particular those conditions that impact advertiser-consumer transactions. Deterioration in economic conditions could cause decreases in or delays in advertising spending and reduce and/or negatively impact our short term ability to grow our revenues. Further, any decreased collectability of accounts receivable or early termination of agreements due to deterioration in economic conditions could negatively impact our results of operations.

We depend on the growth of mobile technologies, the Internet and the Internet infrastructure for our future growth and any decrease in growth or anticipated growth in mobile and Internet usage could adversely affect our business prospects.

Our future revenue and profits, if any, depend upon the continued widespread use of mobile technologies and the Internet as an effective commercial and business medium. Factors which could reduce the widespread use of mobile technologies (including mobile devices, in particular) and the Internet include:

 

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possible disruptions or other damage to the mobile, Internet or telecommunications infrastructure and networks;

 

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failure of the individual networking infrastructures of our advertisers, reseller partners, and distribution partners to alleviate potential overloading and delayed response times;

 

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a decision by advertisers and consumers to spend more of their marketing dollars on offline programs;

 

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increased governmental regulation and taxation; and

 

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actual or perceived lack of security or privacy protection.

In particular, concerns over the security of online transactions and the privacy of users, including the risk of identity theft, may inhibit the growth of Internet usage, including commercial transactions. In order for the mobile and online commerce market to develop successfully, we and other market participants must be able to transmit confidential information, including credit card information, securely over public networks. Any decrease in anticipated mobile and Internet growth and usage could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects.

We are exposed to risks associated with credit card fraud and credit payment, and we may continue to suffer losses as a result of fraudulent data or payment failure by advertisers.

We have suffered losses and may continue to suffer losses as a result of payments made with fraudulent credit card data. Our failure to control fraudulent credit card transactions could reduce our net revenue and gross margin and negatively impact our standing with applicable credit card authorization agencies. In addition, under limited circumstances, we extend credit to advertisers who may default on their accounts payable to us or fraudulently “charge-back” amounts on their credit cards for services that have already been delivered by us.

 

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Regulation of E-Commerce, Online Tracking, Online Data Collection, and Use of the Internet may adversely affect our business and operating results.

Mobile and online search, e-commerce and related businesses face uncertainty related to new or future government regulation at the federal, state, and international levels regarding e-commerce, online tracking, online data collection, and use of the Internet. Due to the rapid growth and widespread use of the Internet, state and federal legislatures (both domestically and abroad) have enacted and may continue to enact various laws and regulations relating to the Internet. Individual states may also enact consumer protection laws that are more restrictive than the ones that already exist.

Furthermore, the application of existing laws and regulations to companies that engage in e-commerce, or otherwise interact with the Internet remains somewhat unclear. For example, as a result of the actions of advertisers in our network, we may be subject to existing laws and regulations relating to a wide variety of issues such as consumer privacy, gambling, sweepstakes, advertising, promotions, defamation, pricing, taxation, financial market regulation, quality of products and services, computer trespass, spyware, adware, child protection and intellectual property ownership and infringement. In addition, it is not clear whether existing laws that require licenses or permits for certain of our advertisers’ lines of business apply to us, including those related to insurance and securities brokerage, law offices and pharmacies. Existing federal and state laws that may affect the growth and profitability of our business include, among others:

 

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides protection from copyright liability for online service providers that list or link to third party web sites. We currently qualify for the safe harbor under the DMCA; however, if it were determined that we did not meet the safe harbor requirements, we could be exposed to copyright infringement litigation, which could be costly and time-consuming.

 

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The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) restricts the online collection of personal information about children and the use of that information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the authority to impose fines and penalties upon web site operators and online service providers that do not comply with the law. We do not currently offer any web sites or online services “directed to children,” nor do we knowingly collect personal information from children.

 

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The Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act requires online service providers to report evidence of violations of federal child pornography laws under certain circumstances.

 

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The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act of 2003 establishes requirements for those who send commercial e-mails, spells out penalties for entities that transmit noncompliant commercial e-mail and/or whose products are advertised in noncompliant commercial e-mail and gives consumers the right to opt-out of receiving commercial e-mails. The majority of the states also have adopted similar statutes governing the transmission of commercial e-mail. The FTC and the states, as applicable, are authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act and the state-specific statutes, respectively. CAN-SPAM gives the Department of Justice the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators as well.

 

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The Electronic Communications Privacy Act prevents private entities from disclosing Internet subscriber records and the contents of electronic communications, subject to certain exceptions.

 

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The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other federal and state laws protect computer users from unauthorized computer access/hacking, and other actions by third parties which may be viewed as a violation of privacy. Courts may apply each of these laws in unintended and unexpected ways. As a company that provides services over the Internet as well as call recording and call tracking services, we may be subject to an action brought under any of these or future laws.

 

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Among the types of legislation currently being considered at the federal and state levels are consumer laws regulating for the use of certain types of software applications or downloads and the use of “cookies.” These proposed laws are intended to target specific types of software applications often

 

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referred to as “spyware,” “invasiveware” or “adware,” and may also cover certain applications currently used in the online advertising industry to serve and distribute advertisements. In addition, the FTC has sought inquiry regarding the implementation of a “do-not-track” requirement. Federal legislation is also expected to be introduced that would regulate “online behavioral advertising” practices. If passed, these laws would impose new obligations for companies that use such software applications or technologies. At least one state already has enacted a law, which will go into effect in January 2014, regarding online tracking.

Many Internet services are automated, and companies such as ours may be unknowing conduits for illegal or prohibited materials. It is possible that some courts may impose a strict liability standard or require such companies to monitor their customers’ conduct. Although we would not be responsible or involved in any way in such illegal conduct, it is possible that we would somehow be held responsible for the actions of our advertisers or distribution partners.

We may also be subject to costs and liabilities with respect to privacy issues. Several companies have incurred penalties for failing to abide by the representations made in their public-facing privacy policies. In addition, several states have passed laws that require businesses to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect sensitive personal information and to provide notice to consumers in the event of a security breach. Further, it is anticipated that additional federal and state privacy-related legislation will be enacted. Such legislation could negatively affect our business.

In addition, foreign governments may pass laws that could negatively impact our business and/or may prosecute us for violating existing laws. Such laws might include EU member country conforming legislation under applicable EU Privacy, eCommerce, Telecommunications and Data Protection Directives. Any costs incurred in addressing foreign laws could negatively affect the viability of our business. Our exposure to this risk will increase to the extent we expand our operations internationally.

Federal and state regulation of telecommunications may adversely affect our business and operating results.

Subsidiaries of the Company provide information and analytics services to certain advertisers and reseller partners that may include information services. In connection therewith, the Company, through its subsidiaries, obtains certain telecommunications products and services from carriers in order to deliver these packages of information and analytic services.

Telecommunications laws and regulations (and interpretations thereof) are evolving in response to rapid changes in the telecommunications industry. If our carrier partners were to be subject to any changes in applicable law or regulation (or interpretations thereof), or additional taxes or surcharges, then we in turn may be subject to increased costs for their products and services or receive products and services that may be of less value to our customers, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results. Furthermore, to the extent we offer call recording and pay-for-call services, we may be directly subject to certain telecommunications-related regulations. Finally, in the event that any federal or state regulators were to expand the scope of applicable laws and regulations or their application to include certain end users and information service providers, then our business and operating results could also be adversely affected. The following existing and possible future federal and state laws could impact the growth and profitability of our business:

 

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The Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the “Act”), and the regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission under Title II of the Act, may impose federal licensing, reporting and other regulatory obligations on the Company. To the extent we contract with and use the networks of voice over IP service providers, new legislation or FCC regulation in this area could restrict our business, prevent us from offering service or increase our cost of doing business. There are an increasing number of regulations and rulings that specifically

 

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address access to commerce and communications services on the Internet, including IP telephony. We are unable to predict the impact, if any, that future legislation, legal decisions or regulations concerning voice services offered via the Internet may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

•

The U.S. Congress, the FCC, state legislatures or state agencies may target, among other things, access or settlement charges, imposing taxes related to Internet communications, imposing tariffs or other regulations based on encryption concerns, or the characteristics and quality of products and services that we may offer. Any new laws or regulations concerning these or other areas of our business could restrict our growth or increase our cost of doing business.

 

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The FCC has initiated a proceeding regarding the regulation of broadband services. The increasing growth of the broadband IP telephony market and popularity of broadband IP telephony products and services heighten the risk that the FCC or other legislative bodies will seek to regulate broadband IP telephony and the Internet. In addition, large, established telecommunication companies may devote substantial lobbying efforts to influence the regulation of the broadband IP telephony market, which may be contrary to our interests.

 

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There is risk that a regulatory agency will require us to conform to rules that are unsuitable for IP communications technologies or rules that cannot be complied with due to the nature and efficiencies of IP routing, or are unnecessary or unreasonable in light of the manner in which we offer voice-related services such as call recording and pay-for-call services to our customers.

 

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Federal and state telemarketing laws including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Telemarketing Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

 

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Laws affecting telephone call recording and data protection, such as consent and personal data statutes. Under the federal Wiretap Act, at least one party taking part in a call must be notified if the call is being recorded. Under this law, and most state laws, there is nothing illegal about one of the parties to a telephone call recording the conversation. However, several states (i.e., California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington) require that all parties consent when one party wants to record a telephone conversation. The telephone recording laws in other states, like federal law, require only one party to be aware of the recording. A Wiretap Act violation is a Class D felony; the maximum authorized penalties for a violation of section 2511(1) of the Wiretap Act are imprisonment of not more than five years and a fine under Title 18. Authorized fines are typically not more than $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for an organization, unless there is a substantial loss. State laws impose similar penalties.

 

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The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act may require that the Company undertake material modifications to its platforms and processes to permit wiretapping and other access for law enforcement personnel.

 

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Under various Orders of the Federal Communications Commission, the Company may be required to make material retroactive and prospective contributions to funds intended to support Universal Service, Telecommunications Relay Service, Local Number Portability, the North American Numbering Plan and the budget of the Federal Communications Commission.

 

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Laws in most states of the United States of America may require registration or licensing of one or more subsidiaries of the Company, and may impose additional taxes, fees or telecommunications surcharges on the provision of the Company’s services which the Company may not be able to pass through to customers.

 

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State and local governments may in the future be permitted to levy additional taxes on Internet access and electronic commerce transactions, which could result in a decrease in the level of usage of our services. In addition, we may be required to pay additional income, sales, or other taxes.

On November 19, 2004, the federal government passed legislation placing a ban on state and local governments’ imposition of new taxes on Internet access or electronic commerce transactions which expires in November 2014. The proposed Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 if enacted into law would allow states to require online and other out of state merchants to collect and remit sales and use tax on products and services that they may sell. An increase in taxes may make electronic commerce transactions less attractive for advertisers and businesses, which could result in a decrease in the level of usage of our services. Additionally, from time to time, various state, federal and other jurisdictional tax authorities undertake reviews of the Company and the Company’s filings. In evaluating the exposure associated with various tax filing positions, the Company on occasion accrues charges for probable exposures. We cannot predict the outcome of any of these reviews.

Risks Relating to Ownership of our Common Stock

Our Class B common stock prices have been and are likely to continue to be highly volatile.

The trading prices of our Class B common stock have been and are likely to continue to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations. Since our initial public offering, the closing sale price of our Class B common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market ranged from $3.00 to $26.14 per share through September 30, 2013. Our stock prices may fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, which may be the result of our business strategy or events beyond our control, including:

 

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developments concerning proprietary rights, including patents, by us or a competitor;

 

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announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, financings, commercial relationships, joint ventures or capital commitments;

 

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registration of additional shares of Class B common stock in connection with acquisitions;

 

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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;

 

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lawsuits initiated against us or lawsuits initiated by us;

 

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announcements of acquisitions or technical innovations;

 

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potential loss or reduced contributions from distribution partners, reseller partners and agencies, or advertisers;

 

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changes in growth or earnings estimates or recommendations by analysts;

 

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changes in the market valuations of similar companies;

 

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changes in our industry and the overall economic environment;

 

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volume of shares of Class B common stock available for public sale, including upon conversion of Class A common stock or upon exercise of stock options;

 

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Class B common stock repurchases under our previously announced share repurchase program;

 

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sales and purchases of stock by us or by our stockholders, including sales by certain of our executive officers and directors pursuant to written pre-determined selling and purchase plans under Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and

 

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short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions on shares of our Class B common stock.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the NASDAQ Global Select Market and the market for mobile and online commerce companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have

 

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often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the listed companies. These broad market and industry factors may seriously harm the market price of our Class B common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies.

Litigation against us, whether or not judgment is entered against us, could result in substantial costs and potentially economic loss, and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources, any of which could seriously harm our financial condition. Additionally, there can be no assurance that an active trading market of our Class B common stock will be sustained.

Our executive officer founders control the outcome of stockholder voting, and there may be an adverse effect on the price of our Class B common stock due to the disparate voting rights of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock.

As of September 30, 2013, Russell C. Horowitz, Ethan A. Caldwell and Peter Christothoulou, our executive officer founders, beneficially owned 100% of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock, which shares represented 87% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our capital stock. These executive officer founders together control 87% of the combined voting power of all outstanding shares of our capital stock. The holders of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock have identical rights except that the holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of our Class A common stock are entitled to twenty-five votes per share on all matters to be voted on by stockholders. This concentration of control could be disadvantageous to our other stockholders with interests different from those of these executive officer founders. This difference in the voting rights of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock could adversely affect the price of our Class B common stock to the extent that investors or any potential future purchaser of our shares of Class B common stock give greater value to the superior voting rights of our Class A common stock. Further, as long as these executive officer founders have a controlling interest, they will continue to be able to elect all or a majority of our board of directors and generally be able to determine the outcome of all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval. As a result, these executive officer founders will be in a position to continue to control all fundamental matters affecting our company, including any merger involving, sale of substantially all of the assets of, or change in control of, our company. The ability of these executive officer founders to control our company may result in our Class B common stock trading at a price lower than the price at which such stock would trade if these executive officer founders did not have a controlling interest in us. This control may deter or prevent a third party from acquiring us which could adversely affect the market price of our Class B common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions may limit the ability of another party to acquire us, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our certificate of incorporation, as amended, our by-laws and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a third party from acquiring us, even if doing so may be beneficial to our stockholders. In addition, these provisions could limit the price investors would be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class B common stock. The following are examples of such provisions in our certificate of incorporation, as amended, or our by-laws:

 

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the authorized number of our directors can be changed only by a resolution of our board of directors;

 

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advance notice is required for proposals that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;

 

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there are limitations on who may call stockholder meetings; and

 

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our board of directors is authorized, without prior stockholder approval, to create and issue “blank check” preferred stock.

 

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We are also subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which provides, subject to enumerated exceptions, that if a person acquires 15% or more of our voting stock, the person is an “interested stockholder” and may not engage in “business combinations” with us for a period of three years from the time the person acquired 15% or more of our voting stock. The application of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company.

We may not be able to continue to pay dividends on our common stock in the future which could impair the value of such stock.

Under Delaware law, dividends to stockholders may be made only from the surplus of a company, or, in certain situations, from the net profits for the current fiscal year or the fiscal year before which the dividend is declared. We have initiated and paid a quarterly dividend on our common stock since November 2006. We accelerated and paid all four of our 2013 quarterly cash dividends on December 31, 2012. However, there is no assurance that we will be able to pay dividends in the future. Our ability to pay dividends in the future will depend on our financial results, liquidity and financial condition.

We will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from any offering and may not use them effectively.

Our management may have broad discretion to use the net proceeds of any offering for a variety of purposes, including, further development of our products and operations, working capital and general corporate purposes. We may spend or invest these proceeds in a way with which our stockholders disagree. Failure by our management to effectively use these funds could harm our business and financial condition. Until the net proceeds of any offering are used, they may be placed in investments that do not yield a favorable return to our investors, do not produce significant income or lose value.

USE OF PROCEEDS

Except as may be otherwise set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement accompanying this prospectus, the net proceeds from the sale of any shares of our Class B common stock that we offer will be used for general corporate purposes, including:

 

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working capital;

 

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capital expenditures; and

 

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acquisitions of or investments in businesses or assets.

Pending application of the net proceeds, we may temporarily invest the net proceeds in short-term marketable securities.

We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares of our Class B common stock by the Selling Stockholders.

SELLING STOCKHOLDERS

Up to 3,500,000 shares of Class B common stock being offered by this prospectus may be offered by certain Selling Stockholders. Information about the potential Selling Stockholders who offer securities under the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part will be set forth in prospectus supplements, post-effective amendments and/or filings we make with the SEC under the Exchange Act that are incorporated by reference. Each applicable prospectus supplement, post-effective amendment and/or filing under the Exchange Act will identify the Selling Stockholders selling in that offering and their relationship to Marchex and will also include the following information:

 

•

the number of shares of Class B common stock then held by the Selling Stockholders;

 

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•

the number of shares of Class B common stock then being offered by the Selling Stockholders; and

 

•

the number of shares (and, if one percent or more, the percentage) of Class B common stock owned by the Selling Stockholders after completion of the offering.

 

•

the shares described in this prospectus were obtained by certain of the Selling Stockholders (i) in connection with our incorporation, (ii) in private placements by us, (iii) in employee restricted stock and restricted stock units awards by us, and (iv) upon the exercise of options to purchase our Class B common stock.

PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION

We may sell our Class B common stock, and the Selling Stockholders may sell Class B common stock, in one or more of the following ways from time to time:

 

•

to or through underwriters or dealers;

 

•

by itself or themselves directly;

 

•

through agents;

 

•

through a combination of any of these methods of sale; or

 

•

through any other methods described in a prospectus supplement.

The prospectus supplements related to an offering of Class B common stock will set forth the terms of such offering, including:

 

•

the name or names of any underwriters, dealers or agents;

 

•

the purchase price of the Class B common stock and the proceeds to Marchex and to the Selling Stockholders from the sale; and

 

•

any underwriting discounts and commissions or agency fees and other items constituting underwriters’ or agents’ compensation.

If a dealer is used in the sale of Class B common stock, we or the Selling Stockholders, if any, may sell the Class B common stock to the dealer, as principal. The dealer may then resell the Class B common stock to the public at varying prices to be determined by the dealer at the time of resale. The names of the dealers and the terms of the transaction will be set forth in the prospectus supplement relating to that transaction.

The underwriters, dealers and agents participating in any distribution of the Class B common stock may be deemed to be underwriters under the Securities Act, and any discounts and commissions received by them and any profit realized by them on resale of the Class B common stock may be deemed to be underwriting discounts and commissions under the Securities Act. Additionally, because the Selling Stockholders may be deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of Section 2(11) of the Securities Act, the Selling Stockholders may be subject to the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act. Underwriters, dealers and agents may be entitled under agreements with us and the Selling Stockholders to indemnification against and contribution toward certain civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, and to reimbursement by us and the Selling Stockholders for certain expenses.

The Selling Stockholders may also resell all or a portion of their shares of our Class B common stock in transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act in reliance upon Rule 144 under the Securities Act provided they meet the criteria and conforms to the requirements of that rule, Section 4(1) of the Securities Act or other applicable exemptions, regardless of whether the Class B common stock is covered by the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Additionally, the Selling Stockholders may engage in hedging transactions with broker-dealers in connection with distributions of shares or otherwise. In those

 

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transactions, broker-dealers may engage in short sales of shares in the course of hedging the positions they assume with the Selling Stockholders. The Selling Stockholders also may sell shares short and redeliver shares to close out such short positions. The Selling Stockholders may also enter into option or other transactions with broker-dealers which require the delivery of shares to the broker-dealer. The broker-dealer may then resell or otherwise transfer such shares pursuant to this prospectus. The Selling Stockholders also may loan or pledge shares, and the borrower or pledgee may sell or otherwise transfer the shares so loaned or pledged pursuant to this prospectus. Such borrower or pledgee also may transfer those shares to investors in our Class B common stock or the Selling Stockholders’ Class B common stock or in connection with the offering of other securities not covered by this prospectus.

To facilitate the offering of Class B common stock, certain persons participating in the offering may engage in transactions that stabilize, maintain, or otherwise affect the price of the Class B common stock. These may include over-allotment, stabilization, syndicate short covering transactions and penalty bids. Over-allotment involves sales in excess of the offering size, which creates a short position. Stabilizing transactions involve bids to purchase the underlying security so long as the stabilizing bids do not exceed a specified maximum. Syndicate short covering transactions involve purchases of Class B common stock in the open market after the distribution has been completed in order to cover syndicate short positions. Penalty bids permit the underwriters to reclaim selling concessions from dealers when the Class B common stock originally sold by the dealers is purchased in covering transactions to cover syndicate short positions. These transactions, if commenced, may be discontinued by the underwriters at any time.

During such time as we may be engaged in a distribution of the Class B common stock covered by this prospectus we are required to comply with Regulation M promulgated under the Exchange Act. With certain exceptions, Regulation M precludes us, any affiliated purchasers, and any broker-dealer or other person who participates in such distribution from bidding for or purchasing, or attempting to induce any person to bid for or purchase, any security which is the subject of the distribution until the entire distribution is complete. Regulation M also restricts bids or purchases made in order to stabilize the price of a security in connection with the distribution of that security.

LEGAL MATTERS

Certain legal matters with respect to the shares of Class B common stock offered hereby will be passed upon for us by DLA Piper LLP (US). As of the date of this prospectus, a partner of DLA Piper LLP (US) beneficially owns an interest representing less than 0.1% of our outstanding common stock.

EXPERTS

The consolidated financial statements of Marchex, Inc. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2011 and 2012, and for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2012, and management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2012 have been incorporated by reference herein and in the registration statement in reliance upon the reports of KPMG LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, incorporated by reference herein, and upon the authority of said firm as experts in accounting and auditing.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION

We file annual, quarterly, and current reports and other information with the SEC. Our filings with the SEC are available to the public on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Those filings are also available to the public on our corporate website at http://www.marchex.com. The information we file with the SEC or contained on, or

 

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linked to through, our corporate website or any other website that we may maintain is not part of this prospectus or the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. You may also read and copy, at the SEC’s prescribed rates, any document we file with the SEC, including the registration statement (and its exhibits) of which this prospectus is a part, at the SEC’s Public Reference Room located at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. You can call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 to obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room. You may find additional information about us at our corporate website at http://www.marchex.com, our Company blog at http://www.blog.marchex.com and our Twitter account at https://twitter.com/marchex. The information on our website, our Company blog and our Twitter account are not part of this prospectus.

INFORMATION INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” into this prospectus certain information. This means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to those documents that contain the information. The information we incorporate by reference is considered a part of this prospectus, and later information we file with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below and any future filings we make with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), on or after the date of this prospectus (other than information “furnished” under Items 2.02 or 7.01 (or corresponding information furnished under Item 9.01 or included as an exhibit) of any Current Report on Form 8-K or otherwise “furnished” to the SEC, unless otherwise stated) until this offering is completed, as well as documents filed under such sections after the date of the initial registration statement and prior to effectiveness of the registration statement:

 

•

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012, filed with the SEC on March 12, 2013;

 

•

Our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2013, filed with the SEC on May 8, 2013, for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2013, filed with the SEC on August 8, 2013 and for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed with the SEC on November 12, 2013;

 

•

Our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on February 27, 2013, March 8, 2013, March 14, 2013, May 2, 2013, May 7, 2013, June 3, 2013, July 30, 2013; August 19, 2013, November 5, 2013, December 3, 2013, December 16, 2013 and December 23, 2013;

 

•

The portions of our proxy statement on Schedule 14A filed with the SEC on April 3, 2013 that are incorporated by reference into our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012; and

 

•

The description of our Class B common stock as set forth in our registration statement on Form 8-A, which was filed on March 30, 2004, under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act, including any subsequent amendments or reports filed for the purpose of updating such description.

In accordance with Rule 402 of Regulation S-T, the XBRL related information in Exhibit 101 to our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed under the Securities Act, except as will be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

You may obtain any of the documents incorporated by reference through the SEC or the SEC’s website as described above or on our corporate website at http://www.marchex.com. You may request copies of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at:

Marchex, Inc.

520 Pike Street, Suite 2000

Seattle, Washington 98101

(206) 331-3300

Attention: Ethan A. Caldwell, General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer

 

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Marchex, Inc.

5,714,000 Shares

Class B Common Stock

Prospectus Supplement

 

 

 

 

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